Feeling out of sorts

28 10 2009

With information coming in from all around, I’ve been feeling out of sorts these past few days. I’m worried that I’m backsliding to my old ways of allowing outside forces to disrupt my practice of being peace. What happened to being in the present (Eckhardt Tolle), taking 15 minutes to do anything (FlyLady), and going with the flow?

My flow and my routine have been interrupted, but rather than stew about it, I’ve finally decided to write it down in this post. Writing is literary art, and as with any art, one keeps working at it to improve, spending time on task. Like a painting, a piece of writing evolves. Writing can be therapeutic too. So here goes. What might be bugging me?

The information that is coming in is of a spiritual nature, from meditating, dreaming, reading, and other people. It’s from practicing the “relax, open, and smile” of qigong. Seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given to you. Right in front of you. Oh, boy! I trust myself and the messages. I welcome them, but I want to take time to sort them out.

In the past seven days I learned that Alan Holt Jr. (art fan), David P. Eldredge (teacher), and Norman Bode (neighbor) died. I can’t say I was close to any of these Hawaiians, but each did touch my heart in his unique way, and I knew he cared. I guess I’m grieving. I remember what the intuitive Camille said to me: “You came into this life to assist with grief, but it is not appropriate to take other people’s grief.” (Okay)

I’m slightly anxious about my eyes. Nothing serious, but the optometrist recommended I visit the ophthalmologist about a wayward eyelash that’s the apparent cause of chronic irritation. So I’ve made an appointment. (Good)

Regarding my body, some aches have returned. Is it something mechanical like my chair? Not enough tai chi—I skipped a couple of classes—or too much? The TMB syndrome (Too Many Birthdays)? Was it from Stephen’s guided meditation last week when I sent a grounding chord from my root chakra at the base of my spine to the middle of the earth? (Hmmm)

Could the soreness be from carrying our baby granddaughter? Ayla, who is an absolute delight, and her entourage come to the studio four days a week now, and I get to do some weight lifting. It’s a very pleasant distraction, though. This week DH and I introduce her to my favorite food, poi. (Wonderful)

Or maybe it’s the shoes thing. Now that’s a problem. I don’t like to wear shoes, at least not the closed-toe kind. I’m hard to fit, my toes need to be able to wiggle and breathe, and recently I haven’t found any that are comfortable, supportive, and stylish. This matters because in six weeks I’ll be on my way to Austria where I will be on a boat as well as on cobblestone streets, and where both the air and the ground will be much too cold to wear sandals like I do in Hawaii. I have large feet, thanks to my Hawaiian and Hakka Chinese genes combined. They’re not just long, they are wide. Wider than M, but not as wide as W, depending. I’ll probably end up turning my trusty lavender snow boots into all occasion footwear and let it go at that. (Good bet)

Lately, too, I’ve added the Ka Lahui Hawaii website, http://kalahuihawaii.wordpress.com, to my “want to do” list.

I want to make and sell more paintings, and . . .

Hey, you know what?! I think I need some REIKI! Can anybody come out on Friday? It will be my treat.

Copyright 2009 Rebekah Luke

Reiki is a complementary therapy that balances a person’s mind, body, spirit and emotions. For more information, click on REIKI HEALING BY OELEN in the menu bar.  Or view my 9/3/09 post “Learning about energy healing.” Our healing space in Kaaawa is open on Friday. Call first to let us know if you’re coming. 808 237-7185.


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Why write? why paint? why heal?

15 10 2009

Rebekah’s Studio features old-fashioned letters, paintings and healing. Why write? Why paint? Why heal?

In the current 42-day world gratitude experiment shepherded by Stacey Robyn, the meditation for Day 27 is “Writes of Passage.” The suggestion is to ponder, “Who am I grateful for?” and write a letter to thank this person without the pressure that it needs to be delivered (because it doesn’t).

Stacey Robyn notes that psychology professor Peterson of the University of Michigan gives students a homework assignment now and then of writing such a gratitude letter, a belated thank you note, if you will. The letter writing “provides long-lasting mood boosts to the writers.” The professor says his students feel happier one hundred percent of the time.

Lately I have been trying to locate a certain Alan who was a fan of my oil paintings when I first started exhibiting my work. He would see the announcements in the paper and show up at the openings. Passing by one day he saw me painting on location at Kaaawa Stream and pulled up along the side of the highway. He cheerfully called out the window, “Let me know when you’re finished with that one, I’d like to see it.”

The painting he admired

The painting he admired

As it turns out, this was quite some years ago, and after a long pause in painting I pulled out the canvas just this spring and completed it. I remembered Alan and set out to contact him. It’s a wonder to me how I remembered his name—his first name, and then after a couple of days, his last name. No luck in the printed phone directory, and initially nothing familiar in various searches on the internet.

My research brought me to a blurb and photo from Hawaii Fishing News, reporting and depicting a fisherman with the same last name and looks who had caught a 100-plus-pound ulua fish in the summer of 1999 and who thanked Alan for his help. Being tenacious in my research, I contacted HFN who kindly gave me the fisherman’s phone number. I left call back messages twice, but no one rang back.

Still wanting to reach Alan, I took to searching the internet again. Last night I came across an esoteric article by T. Castanha, “Aia Na Ha’ina I Loko o Kakou (The Answers Lie Within Us),” concerning the “Boricua Migration to Hawai‘i and Meaning of Caribbean Indigenous Resistance, Survival and Presence on  the Island of Boriken (Puerto Rico).”

The article is interesting to me for its insight on the situation of the indigenous peoples of Boriken and the Hawaiian Islands both. The paper was presented in Hilo at the 1999 World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education.

More intriguing to me was that the author dedicated his presentation to his friend, brother and roommate, who recently passed on, the article stated, his friend who had the same name of the Alan I was looking for.

There, then, was the answer for me.

And here, now, is my gratitude letter to a faithful fan: Mahalo, Alan, for encouraging my art. Perhaps our paths will cross again.

Copyright 2009 Rebekah Luke

In a Reiki healing session, we thank our Reiki masters in spirit from the heart. Like writing a gratitude letter, Reiki can help one feel happier. For more information, click on Reiki Healing by Oelen in the menu bar.


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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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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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