Makia: Be Focused (or no dinner)

So today's lesson was supposed to be makia: be focused. The huna principle here is that "energy flows where attention goes." As part of this learning experience, we are headed up to the Limahuli Gardens with Jeannie Ruman to commune with the elementals and the plant spirits. Jeanne has studied with several shaman including Serge King and is an expert in guiding "

people through Nature, while the Spirits of the forest open their kingdom to us reestablishing the ancient connection between man and Nature Beings once more." 

Now the ironic thing here is that sometimes in order to see the spirits and commune with them, you have to use your "shaman eyes"--which means to defocus. Have you ever tried to look at one of those 3D drawings where you sort of have to let your eyes cross in order to see the picture. It's a lot like that.

So back up to the North Shore we drive. At this point I am begining to wonder if there are other parts of the island that are worth seeing, but Mishi assures me that there are; we will do those later. 

We spent the first part of our hike learning about the native plants to the area and how the Hawaiians grew them and used them. Limahuki Gardens had reconstructed an area to show how they used irrigation/canal techniques to bring the water from the nearby stream into their gardens.

We then hiked on through the gardens and in the valley and looked for spirits in nature. I captured a few picutres and if you look closely, you can see faces in the landscape. We took our time on this walk because Jeanne assured us that if we were to hurry too much, we would scare the spirits off.

check out the face in the "triangle"

At the "top" of the trail, there was a stone that you could sit inside, and if you angled yourself correctly, you could tone and it would vibrate through your body. We all took turns and sat in the rock and then gathered in a small circle and had a short but sweet ceremony honoring the spirits of nature and their gifts to us. 

King Kong!

After the botanical gardens, we went and grabbed some to-go lunches at the local grocery store and headed to a beach. We had planned to go back to the lodge and have some time but Uncle Nelson needed some help with the Hukilau set up so Tim dropped us off at a beach to rest. For those of you who don't know, a hukilau is a fish fry on the beach. The idea is that you set out nets and when you pull them in, you hopefully have caught dinner. We were unlucky. But we also had a back-up plan: bought ahi!

Uncle Nelson and his grandson setting up the nets.

The ladies sliced up the ahi and put it in a frier right on the beach. We also had some fresh caught crabs and delicious salads prepared by Karen. The beer wasn't bad either. All in all, it was a great way to finish a beautiful day.

setting the net

crab!

slicing up the fish

lining it up...

dinner!

Well, as the principle says "energy flows where focus goes" and since we had focused our energy on hiking, beaching and eating, we were done for the night. As a matter of fact, were were supposed to have a bon fire after dinner and possibly a fire ceremony, but we were all so exhausted that we helped clean up and then piled into the van. Tim was a little disappointed that we didn't stick around for the fire, but truthfully there was no fire left in us.