We have been learning compassion by way of the hula, Kaiona, these previous few months. Kaiona, the goddess of the misplaced, was written by Puakea Nogelmeier and sung by Keali’i Reichel. The melody is soothing, the phrases are enlightening, the hula is transformative.
We’ve gone deep with this hula. Our our bodies have realized palms and toes, our minds have studied the lyrics, and we’ve opened our hearts discovering feelings inside to share as we inform the story of Kaiona. It’s a narrative of being misplaced, caring for ourselves with loving kindness, discovering the flicker inside, and serving to others.
I’ve seen how being embodied and dancing isn’t solely about pleasure, nevertheless it’s an integral a part of a therapeutic course of. It’s about opening your coronary heart or beginning the method to open. Like studying something new, at first it’s troublesome, however as you retain going, you’ll be shocked by how a lot you’ll study your self and the world.
Feeling misplaced will be about loss or grief that arises resulting from loss. I bear in mind 4 occasions in my life after I spontaneously began crying out loud as a result of I used to be very unhappy. One time was after I was leaving for school to go to the University of Redlands in California. It was 1968. I used to be 18 and able to go away Kukaiau to see the world, but how does one say goodbye to a household that one has had so many experiences with. It’s a lack of a lifestyle.
The entire household was at Hilo Airport seeing me and my highschool classmate, Mary Lou Yuen, off to Honolulu after which Los Angeles. I’m certain I used to be triggered after I gave Dad a hug. We had a sort of relationship, particularly after I was older, that each time we’d have a severe dialogue about something, I seen that tears would come up and I’d be questioning why I used to be crying. I seen that Dad could be chatting with me in a quite simple however very compassionate and loving means.
My head couldn’t actually determine it out. But my physique knew that aloha was flowing and my coronary heart was opening and tears naturally following. It’s exhausting to gauge a father or mother’s love together with your head. But you may’t argue together with your coronary heart.
After hugging my mother and father I burst out crying as I walked in direction of the steps going up into the airplane. I used to be homesick for month after I began faculty and it’s factor that Mary Lou and I have been roomies. Everything was simply so completely different. And then I adjusted to life as a university pupil however all the time with gratitude for my upbringing in Hawaii – for the land and my household.
I didn’t actually give it some thought then, however after I look again and replicate, I see that grief and gratitude went hand in hand. Grief initially is uncooked and it hurts in your coronary heart. But be courageous, stick to feeling – not a lot the ideas however the feeling in your coronary heart – it is not going to final eternally and it helps maintain your coronary heart fluid and comfortable – an necessary option to generate compassion. And we want plenty of that proper now.
~Sensei June Ryushin Tanoue
