Hōlanikū Update #6
My word of advice is to give your thanks to the people who raised you and fed you while they can still hear it and feel it in this physical realm and then carry on that legacy in the way you do the same for the next generation. When I look out onto this land and see the way the birds love, I wonder to myself how many times these bird parents have come back here to reunite with their partners to gift life to the bird nation. Many of these birds are long lived, meaning they are more like us than most think. Wisdom, a beautiful moli living on Kuaihelani has lived well over sixty years and has raised generations of Moli that we see today. There is so much that can be learned by looking up at life happening in and around us.
I hope you look up today and when you see the Manu o Ku flying between the tall buildings of Honolulu or the Kolea gathering at the shorelines, that you don’t just see birds, you see legacy. I hope that you see it is a legacy worth protecting just like you see your own and maybe then, we will see that these birds are much like sunrise and sunset. Every single one is different, every single one has it’s own personality, it’s own spirit, it’s own soul. And their lives mean just as much as ours. They all have Grandmothers too, that lived and loved so that they could.
Welo,
na Hawane Pa’a Makekau
La 7 o ‘Okakopa 2022
Holaniku, Papahaumokuakea
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