I think in life there are so many manaful moments – just moments filled with memories and filled with so much inspiration. I think a lot of my spiritualness and inspiration is drawn from the mana that is inherited through my own ‘ohana.
I was just thinking about it driving from home in Kāne‘ohe, and gazing up at Keahiakahoe, which is the summit that stands over our home and our place Ko‘olaupoko. Sitting next to me in the car as we were quietly coming over the Ko‘olau was my son, Keahiakahoe, whose name (inoa) is drawn from those cliffs, and our son Ke‘ohuināpali, the mist upon the cliffs. Everyday as we make our way through the Ko‘olau tunnel and our way to work and school, in the metropolis of Honolulu, there’s this sense of peace that we draw from our own ‘āina.
I think of inoa ho‘omana‘o, inoa kūpuna, our names that connect us to where we are. This child of mine knows his place, knows his surroundings, knows his sense of place and his aloha for his ‘āina, which prepares him everyday. And as we prepare for the long day ahead in ho‘ona‘auao, in our own education, in our home and our work, that inoa that sometimes we take for granted is in our own names. And it embodies the spirit and the mana of our kūpuna, of our ‘āina, of our kulaiwi, our home.
It’s nice to be reminded by the elements too – the natural elements, the ‘ohu, the ua, all the things that nourish us – that we mahalo ke Akua and we mahalo our kūpuna kahiko, that when we return home every evening, from Honolulu coming back to Ko‘olaupoko, those things remind us again that we are in our pu‘uhonua, our safe place. As I watch my children and mo‘opuna growing, it gives me a feeling of satisfaction, safety and aloha, knowing that we live in such a special place. That mana that we draw from our kūpuna, the collective mana, ancestral mana is part of our kuleana and who we are. And our inoa reminds us of that.
