Pure

When you're in a place of clear sky and blue ocean, bordered by mountains, enclosed in natural beauty and wonder it's hard not to feel something outside yourself.  It's not quite spiritual, it's almost a reflective gratefulness to be able to be here, not only in this particular place, but on Earth itself - witnessing wonder and miracles of the natural and man-made kind.

Hawaiians are truly a wondrous people. Open, giving, friendly, warm.  It saddened me to learn that by 2030 a native Hawaiian will no longer exist as most everyone is of mixed race.  The "pure" Hawaiian has become so diluted that it will be extinct by 2030.  This fact doesn't seem to bother anyone here because it's not about pure breeds, it's about pure spirit.  This spirit, what Hawaiians call the "Aloha Spirit", isn't about what you were born into, what you have or what you want, it's about how you are, what you be.  This resonates no more than the word 'aloha' itself.  While the word 'aloha' has become a bit toss-a-way for us outsiders, casually used for hello and goodbye, the meaning, or more so the feeling, behind the word aloha isn't toss-a-way at all - it lives so deeply in the hearts of all Hawaiians we must believe that the Hawaiian spirit, the Aloha spirit, won't die regardless of what the statisticians say about this wonderful, glorious dying race.

A, ala, watchful, alertness
L, lokahi, working with unity
O, oia'i'o, truthful honesty
H, ha'aha'a, humility
A, ahonui, patient perseverance

These weighty words are behind every single aloha uttered by every Hawaiian.  So, my ohana, another beautiful Hawaiian belief: we are all part of each other's ohana, each others family.  This is how Hawaiians address groups of people, whether truly related or not.  We are all connected, all related, all one with this Earth and each other.  We are all part of a family.  So, now, my ohana, this Aloha spirit must become a creed.  A way to live your life and fill your heart and by doing so we ensure that the wonder of the Hawaiian culture and its people never dies.

Aloha, my Ohana.