Manawa: Be Here (or be square)

I awoke in Kauai to a beautiful day! This morning we had an easy morning with coffee and breakfast out on the lanai. Then we begin our day with lei making. It is not as easy as you would think. Most of the leis you buy in Hawaii have been strung. A real lei is wrapped. You collect some ferns, flowers and something that ties it together. We used some sort of dried grass (rattan I think).

our supplies

The you loop and tie everything in. You must be focused and in the moment to complete it. Mishi tried to take the time to recap some of the things we had leared this week but we had to be in the moment in order for our leis to turn out well. It took us a little longer than we thought so most of us ended up with just  head leis.

working hard

After we made our leis, Auntie Karen (our wonderful chef) took us for a short walk around the grounds and showed us several plants that were native to Hawaii and the medicial purposes of all of them. What I found most interesting is the "plantain" plant which actually grows in my back yard!

My finished lei!

After a quick lunch (because we are, of course, running behind) we piled into the van and headed to Weimea Canyon. Our quest was to ride out to to Kalalau Lookout and perform a heart ceremony on top of the mountain. It was cold up there, but totally worth the time. One of our members, Cori, had taken a quick hiatus from us to go up to the canyon and camp for the night. As it turns out, she was right down below us as we performed our ceremony, so in essence, we were all together.

We then took a ride back down the mountain and stopped at a few lookouts to really see the canyon. I have never been to the Grand Canyon (but it's on my list) and this was incredible! We were able to see the sunset and get a few photos before it was too dark.

Beautiful!

Saying Aloha! to the canyon!

Weimea Canyon!