`ali `ali : a post in progress

reposting from September 22, 2011

An impression

Photo by Dylan Shaw on Unsplash

Originally written September 22, 2011 on Kauai.

Aliali

It took me about twenty minutes to find the word above. It wasn't until I went back to where I started, a text from a friend containing a link for a reliable Hawaiian dictionary to find it. The word means clarity.

In reading a legend about the Mo'o, the lizard, the writer emphasizes the metaphorical need for every human to be grounded, belly to the Earth, front claws open to search and inquire, back claws in solid foundation to support growth, and then there is the tail. The tail that encompasses our growth in the sturdiness of our past. A-ha: The past.

In growth and expansion, it is sometimes easy to shoot to the sky and forget your roots. I haven't forgotten my roots, in fact the collusion of my past and my present often nips at the side of my mind. How do I carry forward the bounties or beings that brought me to this moment, while honoring the individual sovereignty, the perfection of each path's evolution: each path ends at the same destination, you know.

The answer is I don't think you can, not in the way I thought, for you cannot carry anyone, you simply carry on.

And then a funny thing may happen, a vista, and you look to your right and there is a beloved and you both say, "How did you know I would be here?"
 

That is the clarity of the heart, the pu'u beats the path, and from above there is only one, from below there are universes.

Eventhough the dictionary says it is a noun, I think it is more about the verbness of clarity, becoming clear, then clearing, humbling and breathing to cultivate and tend to the state of clarity. Just like I needed to read from the Hawaiian language, aliali or `ali`ali, "whiteness" or "clearness" to understand the synapses in my own brain, and yet in the difference the clarity of the sameness.

Claw for what is in front of you, and when you see it, rest your belly on the land beneath you in gratitude for the moment expressed. Swish your tail to remember that what lies behind you gives you the balance of what lies ahead, and if you trust the beat of your own path, all will be clear.