07/09/2014
With permission I share a piece written by a new Tuesday Night Hula student. I was so touched and honored that she felt such strong emotion from her very first class. To see her again, last night at her second class, improvement shown and ready to take on more challenges brings me such joy! What a pleasure to spend time with her and the other gals .... we have such a great time together!!
"Good Morning, God.
There’s a four hundred-word writing goal today. An interesting concept, I believe - 400 words, 400 ideas made visible.
Last night at my first hula lesson, I learned ancient ways to make words into sacred dance - a useful tool to the islanders who did not develop written language. It was a way to pass culture from one generation to another.
Here I was moving my hips, which considering my herniated disc, and “stuck” sacroiliac was amazing and learning how to dance to the song, Hanalei Moon.
Hanalei Moon as sung by Dennis Pavao gives opportunity for a beautiful dance. My dancing isn’t beautiful, grant you, not yet. But, I found rivers of hope floating through my dance. And I knew the joy I was experiencing would result in health, freedom of expression, and loss of excess bodyweight. It was amazing. I relished every feminine bit of me.
The language comes fairly easily – love, see, aloha, the land, the heavens, the ocean, the stars and moon, breeze, forever, never go away. I suppose perfecting it will take a lifetime. Then again my writing is also a lifetime event.
Victoria, my teacher, is Samoan with skills in hula, Tahitian and Samoan dance. She came from a dancing family. The YouTube videos teaching hula are driven with detailed specifics – “Step left, step right, lift your right hip when you are on your left foot, yadda, yadda.” Not so with my motorcycle mama, hula teacher. She teaches dance as a language should be taught, by total immersion. We follow her, we follow her again, she performs for us while we catch our breath, and we perform with her. By the end of our time, we had come far on the path where there is never any right or wrong just progress.
In the middle of the class I cried, remembering the late 70’s when I lived in Oahu. I remembered how sweet my babies were when they took hula lessons. I remembered the rainy day in the car when one said, “Look, Mommy, the rain is doing the hula on the window.” It was! I remembered us singing, “Mele Kalikimaka is the song we sing on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day.” And I danced, tears streaming down my face.
By the way, I’m writing in my garden this morning. There is a pure white impatiens named Infinity White in full bloom. Her flower is nearly 3 inches in diameter and would look lovely in my hair for dancing. I’d put it on the left side, indicating that I have given myself to someone – the love of my life.
455 words and the best time ever."
Wow! She inspires me!! Thank you lovely lady ,~) Victoria
