I found my Spirit...

Aloha kaua,
Two weeks ago Thursday, some of the halau went up to Kilauea, also known as Hawaii's Volcano National Park. The home of our volcano goddess Pele. It was a wonderful visit and a spiritually uplifting event. Although we are lucky to be allowed to grace this blessed island, we have not been able to get up to the volcano very often. Well, our visit had a focus. We wanted to go up together to not only perform our chants and oli for what they were intended for, which is for paying homage to this sacred place, asking permission to gather Hawaiian plants in the forest and the use of proper protocol... but one of our precious hula girls will be leaving the halau for awhile to return to Japan and her family.

So our visit was a happy yet, bitter sweet one. But we needed to go and give thanks to Pele for allowing Tomoko to study hula at the local community college and with our halau. When we first arrived we went to the visitors center which, allows you to learn about the Kilauea and the variety of living species that live there. At the center you can learn about the plant life that is so important to hula. A definite 'must see' for any hula practitioner.

Ka'ohu & Tomoko
After wards we left to create wonderful lei po'o that we would wear during our hula. I showed the girls the hula mound that is near the art gallery and how it faces towards the crater and although, we have been asked, the girls have yet to dance there. Ahonui and I danced there many years ago. We hope to take the halau there some time soon.

Our journey was to go to the Jagger Museum area to hula since, the crater rim road is closed due to Madame Pele's ever increasing flow of her domain.
That was alright, we were allowed access 'behind the rope', so to speak, for the halau to spend time alone with Tutu Pele and her beautiful home.... I found my mana there again... My spirit that had been locked up inside for lack of 'not getting out more often'... The clouds had cleared especially for us,... the cold soon changed to warmed our skin,... and what one park ranger lacked in 'aloha', was accepted with heart felt gratitude by another.

We danced for Pele with much more gratitude and servitude for giving us this opportunity to be with her and our sweet Tomo,.. for which she danced especially for, to again give thanks for her learning all that she could, for now, about hula...
Hula is a never ending journey, that will take a lifetime. When I say that I found my spirit, I am only speaking for myself, but i know that we were all surrounded by the spirit of the place, the mana that envelopes you and cradles you close to the heart...overlooking the beautiful site of the hula girls in the foreground of Kilauea, while great, white, billowing clouds floated up and out across the crisp blue sky... I felt my heart strings pull not only for my hula girls, but for the Hawaii that I have loved for so long. It told us that to be there and dance and chant is saying that you believe all that you have learned and continue to learn in hula, to be true...and you feel it to be true... And by dancing hula, we are happy to show others what we believe in....

No, hula is not just for entertainment. Hula is life that carries mana. Spirit. My spirit...and when I am outside and chanting or dancing, well, that is where my spirit is best.
Mahalo Tutu Pele, and mahalo Tomo...come back to us soon.
Me ke aloha, Kumu.