A child asks us to remember

My nephew turned one this summer and his parents threw a powerful luau to celebrate. I was entranced by the hula dancers - the mood, the intricacy of their innocence.

Remembering a healing hula danced by Sughanda Ferro Black at the end of a Tango teacher training program on Maui some years ago, I asked her for Hawaiian music suggestions. Among the sweet parcel of songs she recommended was Blaine Kamalani Kia’s gorgeous chant Kamali’i O Ka Po.

A Tango improvisation to this Hawaiian chant: 

Photo by Ahmed Tlamid. Presented at the 10th San Diego Tango Festival on Friday, January 1st, 2016. Video by Scott Haller.

In this chant, a child asks her brother if he remembers how he fits into the bigger picture. “You are holding the fish’s belly - but where is its head? Where is its tail? Where do you come from? Where will you go?” 

Those questions spoke to the dark child within me. It is so easy to dissect away that bigger picture, when we find ourselves in a hard or hungry place. With effort we did make it through our darkness: a dark year, and we even struggled through a dark moment right before dancing this hymn. “Where will you go?” No place but here, just deeper. 

I share this with the hope that we each might feel joyfully connected to the deep intelligence of the larger, longer cycles of life - that we feel ourselves peacefully at home within the vastest of views.

May we all shine together
May all needs be met