Announcing Reiki Fridays

22 09 2009

UPDATE 11/29/09 —My regular Reiki Fridays services in Kaaawa will resume in January 2010. Thank you ~ Oe-Len

UPDATE 9/25/09 — On Friday, October 2, 2009, I will be giving Reiki demos at the Pohai Nani Health Fair, 45-090 Namoku Street, Kaneohe, Oahu. The event is open to the community. Come and check it out. While there you can view Ipo Nihipali’s “KOOLAU!” Refer to the post “Sweet memories and coming home, part 2.”

For new and returning visitors to Rebekah’s Studio, I cordially announce again that Oelen’s healing space in Kaaawa, Oahu, is open regularly for Reiki sessions on Fridays, except in the month of December. Appointments are appreciated, and free will donations are accepted. Please click on Reiki Healing by Oelen in the menu bar for details and contact info. In addition, my 9/3/09 post “Learning about energy healing” provides more background. I invite you to take advantage of the service. Leave your cares of the week behind and start the weekend relaxed, balanced, and with renewed energy! Thank you ~ Oe-Len


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Global meditation on gratitude

18 09 2009

Friends,

Today begins the third  wave of Go Gratitude stewarded by Stacey Robyn. I participated in the first and second waves. It consists of  short meditations that are emailed to you, one each day for 42 days. Wonderful things happen when people around the world, notified through the internet, meditate together about gratitude. Soon, we may reach the critical mass, and then what?!!!  For those who want to join the experiment, you may click on the following link. Afterwards, clicking your back button will bring you back to Rebekah’s Studio.

www.worldgratitude.com

Again, it starts today.

As a reporter by training, I learned to check my sources. Never report anything unless it is corroborated by two or three others. And that’s how I will share with you the events that impressed and convinced me about gratitude:

One day at my morning water exercise at Pohai Nani, our substitute trainer mentioned to the class, “Read messages in water.”  That was it. No context, except that we were in the water of a swimming pool, and no author given. A few days later, my son-in-law handed me a paperback, saying, “Have you read this?” You guessed it: The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto. It tells and shows that water carries messages, that it can be photographed in its crystalline state, and that the word gratitude in any language creates the most beautiful crystals.

About the same time came Stacey Robyn’s invitation to the first wave of Go Gratitude. In the first wave, she introduced the symbol for gratitude and pointed out the pattern that is so prevalent in nature. We have only to look around. I also noticed it was similar to the symbol I was taught to use for practicing Reiki.

For five years up until the spring of 2009, I was involved as a book designer and project manager to produce 20 bilingual toddler’s books in Hawaiian and English. They were created and published by Na Kamalei—K.E.E.P. to promote family interaction in the home through reading. The book series was a remarkable accomplishment by the community of Ko‘olauloa that wrote the stories.

While the “Stories Told By Us” project was remarkable in itself, the Na Kamalei—K.E.E.P. book that touched my heart the most was one for adults that came out of a workshop given by Hawaiian art educator extraordinaire Meleanna Aluli Meyer on “Creativity” in which she guided participants in drawing and writing.  She asked us to think about what we are grateful for.

As members of the group shared with each other what they had written, I immediately noticed the makings of another book. It’s entitled ‘Umeke Writings: An Anthology. I am so very proud of it. It’s about gratitude, and it contains short writings, art work, and photos entirely by 20 grateful Hawaiians. It’s like Chicken Soup for the Soul, Hawaiian style.

Umeke Writings: An Anthology

Umeke Writings

Mahalo to Kamehameha Publishing for providing the resources for Na Kamalei—K.E.E.P. to publish it. And mahalo e ke Akua! Meleanna said afterward, she gives these workshops frequently, but never before had she experienced such synergy. If you come for a Reiki session with me, Oe-Len, I will give you a copy of the book as long as my supply lasts.

Lastly, for today, I wish to share a couple-three more links, just to let you know from where I am coming. (I realize we are all on our own journeys. If you are reading this blog, then for a few moments you are on mine! For me, sometimes it is easier when someone else just tells me something than when I have to learn it on my own. Sometimes I don’t know what questions to ask.) You may pass on this if you wish, however . . .

In the middle of the night before last, something awoke me, and I and was led to my computer to check my spiritual CNN. I found these articles for September 2009 very enlightening.

The first two are “The Wonder of It All,” and the third is a message from Archangel Michael about the violet flame. Here are the links. Afterwards, clicking your back button will bring you back to Rebekah’s Studio.

http://www.awakening-healing.com/A-HNewsLetters/2009/Wonder_of_it_all_PDCR_9609.htm

http://www.awakening-healing.com/A-HNewsLetters/2009/Wonder_of_IT-All_2_PDCR_9609.htm

http://www.awakening-healing.com/A-HNewsLetters/2009/Message_Archangel_Michael_RH_909.htm

I shared my messages-in-the-night experience with some lightworkers with whom I’ve studied and learned, and this morning, waiting in my emailbox was this response from Beverly, a healer in Kona: “This is a very important message from Archangel Michael in regard to what is and has happened in our evolution through this 26,800+ year cycle. I hope you take the time to read it.”

Because I checked my sources, I am comfortable passing on the information to you. It’s time.

With love, light, and gratitude ~ Rebekah

Copyright 2009 Rebekah Luke

Rev. Rebekah Luke has a healing ministry and is ordained by the Universal Life Church. The only two tenets of the ULC are “Freedom of religion” and “Do the right thing.” For more information, click on REIKI HEALING BY OELEN on the menu bar.

Suggested reading:

The Hidden Messages in Water (Paperback) by Masaru Emoto, translated by David A. Thyme, 2004 (ISBN: 978-0-743289-80-1).

‘Umeke Writings: An Anthology, edited by Rebekah Luke and Meleanna Meyer, published by Na Kamalei—K.E.E.P., 2008  (ISBN: 978-1-935111-00-9).

The “spiritual CNN” I refer to is the “Light News” portion of this website:

http://www.awakening-healing.com/A-HNewsLetters/lightnews.htm

“Stories Told By Us” — For more information on 11 books of the Stories Told By Us series, go to http://www.booklineshawaii.com/InvListPage.aspx?Query=Stories%20Told%20By%20U


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On being there

15 09 2009

Ayla learned how to kick off her blanket this morning as a result of my playing peekaboo with the receiving blanket and her legs. Still in the car seat from the ride to our house, she kicked off the cloth on cue repeatedly, smiling widely, then cooing each time I covered her tiny little feet with it, liking the great game with Popo (Chinese grandmother, me). So much fun, she started giggling!

Was that her first giggle? I thought how blessed darling husband is to be the caregiver for this child. He’s there during the daytime when the baby’s cheerfully awake. While Ayla’s parents are away at work, he’s treated to many of baby’s firsts. I began reflecting on how the sweetest and most rewarding moments of life have to do with being there.

In my professional work, being there has made all the difference.

As a general assignment reporter who wrote the daily news, I had to be at events as they were happening, or there would be no story.

As a photographer, I could not notice a gorgeous scene and decide to come back later to make the picture because later the light will have changed and be different. I would have missed the shot.

As a children’s book designer who worked with models, locations, and photography, I had to go there to the photo; it wasn’t going to come to me.

As a plein air landscape painter, I have to be on location the same time each day until the painting is finished to capture the light I saw the first time.

Nowadays back at the studio, I’m experimenting with painting still life and changing my technique. My intention is to paint looser, to use a different color palette than my landscape greens, to apply definite strokes of thick oil paint with a palette knife, and to paint fast. This requires being in the mood, being in the present, and being able to concentrate in order to get it right the first time.

Mango papaya pineapple

Mango papaya pineapple

I’m painting subject matter that’s appeared previously in this blog. Wanting to capture magnificence before it fades away, I had to be there to witness the mangos turn from green to shades of red and red-orange to bright yummy yellow. I had to be there to see the night blooming cereus open for one night only until next year.

Something funny happened, too, because I wasn’t there. As the green, almost-ripe avocado pear sat on the table of my set, waiting for me to preserve its three pounds of glory in a painting, its color turned to the alizarin-brown of ripeness. Before I got around to putting pigment on canvas, I had to eat it!

As a Reiki practitioner, I know that our Reiki Master in Spirit is there for us all the time. We just have to relax, be open to receive, smile, and maybe giggle to witness the healing.

Copyright 2009 Rebekah Luke

To see more images, click on PAINTINGS in the menu bar.


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What is family, island style

13 09 2009

Today might be a good day to talk about my family, or shall I say families. I’ll at least start. I am an only child, and my bloodline ends with me. Sometimes people feel sorry for me because of that, until they discover, “Oh, you have Family!”

Today might be good day to talk about family because we’re having Sunday dinner with my hanai family at our house, and I’m cooking. It’s our turn, and it will be a coming out party for 4-month-old Ayla (see my post “Miss Marvelous discovers her toes”), who is the daughter of my step-daughter.

My hanai (adopted) family came into my life about the time I transitioned from high school to college, well, earlier when I met Margy the first day I was a 9th grader. We remained best friends through Punahou. During my parents’ divorce when I was 17, Margy’s  parents—a doctor and his wife with six children—welcomed me into their home where I roomed until I landed my first job at The Honolulu Advertiser as a general assignment reporter. With that job I earned enough money to pay for my own apartment on Lanihuli Drive and moved out.

Family dinner is usually at Mom’s house. This is typical everywhere, as long as the matriarch is living, isn’t it? After that, the family sort of breaks up and the next generation of matriarchs takes over.

We’ll see who shows up: My nephew might have a flag football game. I’m told he is one of the better players. His dad who followed his father’s footsteps and became a physician—stay with me, now—might be on call. My sister, who competes in dressage, is showing her horse for the first time in a two-day event this weekend and hopes she will have the energy afterward to drive out to Kaaawa from Waimanalo. And ditto about the energy for a brother and his family who have a lunch party to attend at Bellows beach.

Some of my hanai family in the summer of 2008 in Washington, D. C., the year our mom Ivalee received the Jefferson Award.

Mom, who doesn’t drive anymore, will be catching a ride with Becky. Becky and I were each others’ first roommates in the Lanihuli apartment, and she’s family too. In any case, I’m making food for 15. Everyone wants to see and meet the baby.

Today might be a good day to talk about family because on Reiki Friday I saw a client from glee club who read my post “Sweet memories and coming home, part 1” and asked if I was related to Uncle Harry and Aunty Edna.

It is a growing fashion these days where I live to address anyone older than you, if even by a couple of years, as Uncle and Aunty whether you are related by blood or not. I’m sure it is done out of respect, but some people use the names almost as if they are punctuation marks in a way that, in my opinion, dilutes the title. I tend to agree with an authority on Hawaiian naming at Kamehameha Schools who prefers not to be called Uncle unless he is your real uncle. That’s okay, you can call me Aunty, but I prefer Aunty Rebekah.

So when my client asked if I was related to Uncle Harry and Aunty Edna, I thought to myself, yes, that’s why they are Uncle and Aunty, but I understood why she asked. Then I saw her resemblance to Harry. It turns out that Harry and Edna were her uncle and aunty too, and we’re related!—by marriage.

“We used to drive to Wahiawa to get lychee every year,” she said.  As they say, small world. Through family ties that extend all the way back to Kohala and the Basel Mission in China’s Kwangtung province, she explained how she knew many of my first cousins on my mother’s side of the family. My mother was the youngest of 15 Chongs. But that is another story, a story told in The Chong Family History by J. H. Kim On Chong-Gossard.* I sent my client off with a copy. “You’ll enjoy this because you know all of the people in it,” I said.

We are One.

My maternal grandparents and 13 of their 15 children in Kohala. My mother, seated front row and center, ws the baby of the family.

These are my ancestors: my maternal grandparents and 13 of their 15 children in Kohala in 1920. My mother, seated front row and center, was three years old and the baby of the family. Edna is the tall, darker complected girl on the right in the back row.

Copyright 2009 Rebekah Luke

* The Chong Family History by J. H. Kim On Chong-Gossard (Kaaawa: Chong Hee Books, 1992, ISBN 0-9634186-0-2, soft cover, 172 pages) is a five-generation family biography, or Jia Pu, of Chong How Kong and Pan Siu Chin and their descendants. Copies sell for $35 and are available from the publisher Chong Hee Books, P. O. Box 574, Kaaawa, HI 96730.

For information on Reiki Friday, click REIKI HEALING BY OELEN in the menu bar.


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Sweet memories and coming home, part 2

11 09 2009

For a time I joined the morning water exercise class at Pohai Nani, a vibrant senior living community in Kaneohe, which led to my  practice of Reiki there for the residents and staff. One day, more than five years ago, Judy who coordinated activities showed me the little chapel and told of a dream to refurbish it.

I saw a cute, tiny room with an arched ceiling and pews for no more than about 8 to 12 people, if that many. The glass doors on the side slid open to overlook a small enclosed garden patio.  A hallway entrance was plain and dim. I agreed the chapel could used some refreshing.

Judy mused, wouldn’t it be nice to have the chapel decorated with a painting, something Hawaiian, to brighten the area? Maybe something in the hallway to welcome the residents, maybe even something in the chapel itself? I envisioned a fresco-like painting on a wall.

If it was to be Hawaiian, then the only person I knew who could do such a project was Ipo Nihipali, a Native Hawaiian artist known for her paintings of native birds and who had just completed a large outdoor painting at the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Later I called Ipo to ask if Pohai Nani could contact her directly, and I gave Judy the information. I moved on to another project and didn’t see Ipo until this summer at a Hawaiian civic club celebration.

“Rebekah! Rebekah Luke! I have been looking for you!” Ipo exclaimed. She grasped my hand in both of hers. They were trembling and deliciously warm. “I finished it. I finished the painting!” Ipo said she had gotten the commission after all. She said she prayed about the piece and allowed the kupuna (elders) to guide her work. “We’re having the blessing on July 22nd, and I want you to come!” I assured her I would be there.

As soon as one steps onto the breezeway leading to the main entrance at Pohai Nani, the new painting beckons. It was decided that the imagery grace the lobby rather than the chapel for all to enjoy. Entitled KO‘OLAU! the painting is exquisitely executed and depicts our mountain cliffs, the forest, native birds, plants, a waterfall and stream. The piece is enhanced with real pohaku (stones), native ohia lehua branches, a sprouting coconut, ti leaf bundles, and arrangements of tropical ginger beneath the painting, creating a three-dimensional set. It is as if you can step right into the painting.

Recalling Ipo’s words at the ceremony, the manao (thoughts, ideas) for the  painting is something like this:

Do you remember what it was like, when you were a child, to swim in the pool and play in the forest? Look, you can do that again. Come. Leave your earthly possessions here, and go to the other side. Look at the mountains and see your ancestors. They are calling and waiting to carry you home once more. “Oh! Ko‘olau, my beloved rainbow of dreams.”

KO‘OLAU! is a magnificent work, amazing, and a miracle. Ipo will tell you that herself. That’s because she is legally blind (when she can see, it is as if she is looking through a glass of water), and she has Parkinson’s or Parkinson’s-like tremors. What a gift.

Mahalo e Ipo, my tita angel! Aloha no wau ia oe. ~ Rebekah

Artists Ipo Nihipali and her father Joseph Dowson at the blessing and dedication of "KO‘OLAU!"

Native Hawaiian artists Ipo Nihipali and her father Joseph Dowson at the blessing of KO‘OLAU!

Copyright 2009 Rebekah Luke

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Gratitude for my abundant garden

8 09 2009

You can tell how healthy people are by looking at their gardens. Not just their physical health, but their mental, spiritual, and emotional health too. If they’re flourishing, maikai (good)! If they are weedy, drying, or less neat, then perhaps something is out of balance.*  Whenever I pay attention to my garden and take care of the aina (land), my family is rewarded with an abundance of food and beauty. Tending my garden is a way I meditate.

My family is committed to growing some food, eating healthier, and living well. This year we invested in good soil mix, planter boxes, bird netting, a worm farm, and natural slug repellent. The late summer months into September have yielded a small but satisfying crop by the studio. We were blessed with Manoa lettuce, bok choy, long squash, sweet potato, papaya, mango, avocado, noni, basil, garlic chives, rosemary, olena (turmeric), calamondin, mint, dill and cilantro.

Avocado

Avocado

Bok Choy

Bok Choy

Eggplant

Eggplant

Hayden Mango

Hayden Mango

He'e (Octopus)

He'e (Octopus)

To Native Hawaiians, the aina includes the sea. One recent morning while walking along Kaaawa beach, I saw this bounty of freshly caught octopus hanging out to dry. Wow!

Mahalo e ke Akua!

Copyright 2009 Rebekah Luke

* Reiki can be a powerful way to bring things back into balance. Click on REIKI HEALING BY OELEN on the menu bar for more information.


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Sweet memories and coming home, part 1

7 09 2009

On Friday I had a date with my friend Vinnie. At long last I would see him perform Aldyth Morris’s one-person play Damien, a story about the Flemish priest, Father Damien de Veuster, who unselfishly spent his life ministering to the lepers isolated at Kalaupapa on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Father Damien will be canonized on October 11, 2009, in Rome.

I first met Vinnie at Maui Community College when I worked in university relations. He is one of those colleagues/friends who you see every five years or so, and with whom you can just pick up where you left off. Vinnie has performed Damien more than 60-70 times since 2000—on Maui, in the United States and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Europe. I emailed him I finally would be in the audience. “Stay afterward so I can see you,” he wrote back.

With opening-season football games townside signaling bad traffic, I decided to get to the church in Mililani by going the opposite way along the North Shore of Oahu and down the middle of the island. The distance is longer, but the traffic moves, and I enjoy the scenery along the two-lane Kamehameha highway versus the freeway. The route I like goes through Wahiawa, the town I lived in until I was 13. When we pass the Kukaniloko Birthstone State Monument, I know I am almost there.

Kukaniloko by Rebekah Luke

Rain hides the Waianae Mountains behind the Kukaniloko Birth Stones among the tall trees. The birthing ground of Hawaiian royalty was established in the 12th century, according to Fornander.

Kamehameha Highway runs for just three blocks through the town. I have a habit of reciting the neighborhood places I remember. Some are still there, others are long gone and replaced by fast food joints and nondescript development. Wahiawa served Wheeler Air Force Base and Schofield Barracks on the other side of the singing bridge, and the pineapple industry. The lively little main street had everything.

Annie Uwi’s (18 cents for Love’s Bread), the tofu factory, Doctor De Harne’s, Bank of Hawaii, Pang’s grocery (2-cent deposit refunds for soda bottles), Island Bazaar (drygoods and gifts), Chow Ching’s (gon lo mein, char siu and roast pork on Sunday), Duke’s Clothing, Happy Fountain (high swivel stools, orange freezes, curly saimin with fresh green onions, and the best grilled hot dogs), Elite Market, the stationery store, the barber shop, the taxi stand, Top Hat Bar, Service Motors, the shoe store, the jeweler, the variety store, Benny’s photo studio, Judy’s Florist (big cattleya orchid corsages).

Sometimes before leaving Wahiawa, and if the people I’m with don’t mind, we turn right on Kilani avenue to see my old house. My parents rented it from Uncle Harry who lived next door. He had nine houses amidst a lychee garden. Folks drove all the way from Honolulu to buy lychee. I remember being a baby and playing with Uncle Harry’s earlobes on the chenille bedspread as he tried to get me to nap while he listened to the story on the radio and Aunty Edna fussed in the kitchen . . .

Where I lived 50 years ago. The front porch has been screened in, the mock orange hedge is twice as high, and there's a gate now. Everything else looks the same, including the mother lichee tree that must be older than I!

Where I lived 50 years ago, the front porch has been screened in, the mock orange hedge is twice as high, and a gate makes it look less inviting. Everything else looks the same, including the mother lychee tree that must be older than I!

So, you see, every so often I recall my childhood.

As I grow older and work on ascension, and as I observe our 4-month-old granddaughter, I think back on what it was like to be a baby and how important it is for adults to create happy memories for children. Some of my memories weren’t so sweet. I remember the adults laughing at me when I crawled from my room bringing my socks after they asked me to fetch my shoes, feeling frustrated that I could not talk yet to explain why I did that. But I certainly could think it!

I remember emotional things and times that woke up my senses such as when my mother took me aboard a President Lines cruise ship to dine with her visiting friend, and I burned myself on the baked potato.

I remember when Momma took me to Honolulu by taxi on her Thursdays off from piano teaching (I could walk now) to buy music at Metronome and Thayer’s for her pupils, and before coming home we would go to Woolworth, and she would give me a teaspoon of her coffee to drizzle over my vanilla ice cream. Coffee is still my favorite flavor.

(Darling husband thinks it’s amazing I can remember that far back. “Well,” I suggested, “try it. Don’t you remember the smell of your mom?”)

One time I was at a Hawaiian civic club meeting in Wahiawa where they served a bento box lunch. One bite took me back. “Where did this come from?” I asked. “That’s from Marian’s Catering.” Ahhh … I wasn’t able to identify the flavoring, but the taste that took me home was unmistakably Wahiawa from the 1950s. It hadn’t changed.

And just this past July at a friend’s memorial breakfast, someone brought prune bread from Wahiawa. When I was a kid it was called prune cake, and I have been looking for it my whole life. I ordered a prune cake from Chef Instructor Walter Schiess at Kapiolani Community College for my wedding cake, and, unable to find a recipe, he decided, “If it has prunes in it, then it must be a fruit cake.” The Old English wedding cake, three tiers tall, was gorgeous, but not prune cake. When the woman who brought the prune bread saw how ecstatic I was, she gave me a whole loaf to take home. Now I know my sweet memory is alive and well at Kilani Bakery!

Damien. Oh, yes, I was on my way to the play.  Not surprisingly, Vinnie (correct name: Vincent Linares) was FABULOUS as Father Damien. He portrays the character so very passionately. What with Aldyth Morris’s script and the venue of St. John Apostle and Evangelist Church, it was excellent theater on every level. To quote the program notes, “The play finds Damien, awakened from his deathly slumber, taking a journey through his turbulent and compelling life while answering his detractors and critics, a journey that eventually takes him home again.” Home.

On Saturday evening I attended for the first time the Ka Himeni Ana (Old Fashioned Singing)  event at the Hawaii Theatre. This concert and competition has taken place annually since 1983 to encourage the singing of Hawaiian music in the old-fashioned manner without microphones or amplification, with the exception of the steel guitar. The production was filled with nahenahe (soft, sweet) sound, the festive sight of musicians and concert goers in the beautifully renovated theatre, and the fragrant scent of hundreds of fresh ginger blossoms.  Sweet memories, indeed. I plan to go again next year.

To be continued . . .

Copyright 2009 Rebekah Luke

Special note: Vinnie Linares’s final performance of Damien will be on October 24, 2009, at an old church at Makena Beach, Maui. When available, the event details will be posted in Comments below.


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