Just wanted to share a personal testimony about how God is So Good.
Last night, Don was bummed because he had to stay at home and miss his Bible study.
I had a meeting so Don called around looking for a ride to the Thursday night men's Bible Study. But he was not able to contact people so he stayed at home.
Suddenly,he heard a knock on the door and thought it was strange because he did not see any car lights nor heard a car drive in. (We live in the boonies and do not have neighbors near by.) He opened the door and saw a young man who asked for help. There was a young female who was injured with blood on her hands, blood patters on her shirt, injury to her scalp, and lacerations on her shoulders. Don ran around getting first aid supplies to render aid to the girl.
He told the young man to call 911 as the girl's injuries were beyond first aid response. Don was also counseling the young man to pay attention to the girl.
The ambulance arrived and Don noticed that the man was gone. Soon after, two police cars came by and Don explained about the occurrences. Don knew that the man was still in the yard because he could smell the man's cigarette and our niele horse, Hoku, was looking in the direction of our water tank. Don and the officers went looking for the man and found him hiding behind the water tank. The man left with the officers.
God's timing is so perfect. Don's inability to find a ride to Bible study made him available to help the injured woman and hopefully the young man. Praise God for the things He does that are beyond our understanding.
Pray that God will use you to serve Him today.
Don and Mililani
Friday, January 29, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Satisfaction NOT Guaranteed!
Why is it that we are never satisfied with what we've got? I have thick, straight hair. I want soft, curly hair. People who see me wish they had my thick, straight hair and thus resort to such tactics as fluffing out their hair to make it look thick except when you see them with light shining through the thin gossamer veil of hair. Or women who will pay big bucks to straighten their hair so it becomes a straight and lifeless head curtain.
When I was young, I always thought I was fat, husky, big-boned, the Big Hulk! And yet when I look at my old pictures, I do not appear to be a big as I imagined. Now that I am really heavy and fat, I keep wondering why I spent so much time worrying about how fat I was.
What about going out to eat dinner and finding something delectable? But if you eat even one bite more than you should, that delectable tidbit turns into a rubber hockey puck that transforms into a tractor tire with the last drop of saliva you swallowed!! Takes the fun out of the whole meal!! And then there is the misery of feeling overful, bloated, and squeezed into your clothing like an overstuffed sausage.
We had a spacious house when the kids were growing up. It was a place of many family dinners with loud talking and laughing, mountains of food, and love. We had about 40 people over with no problem although it rained inside the house with the body heat of all of our friends. As our children got older, moved out, we thought we'd move to a smaller house. Finding space was a challenge. Having family dinners was a logistical nightmare. So what are we doing? We are building a new building on our property to make up for the lack of space in our "new" house. Thanks to the slow housing market, we still have our old house, the place of childhood memories for our kids. Maybe one of the kids will make our old house their home and a place of many family dinners with loud talking and laughing, mountains of food, and love for a new generation.
We need to live in the moment...savor the present. It might be a lifelong memory for someone someday.
When I was young, I always thought I was fat, husky, big-boned, the Big Hulk! And yet when I look at my old pictures, I do not appear to be a big as I imagined. Now that I am really heavy and fat, I keep wondering why I spent so much time worrying about how fat I was.
What about going out to eat dinner and finding something delectable? But if you eat even one bite more than you should, that delectable tidbit turns into a rubber hockey puck that transforms into a tractor tire with the last drop of saliva you swallowed!! Takes the fun out of the whole meal!! And then there is the misery of feeling overful, bloated, and squeezed into your clothing like an overstuffed sausage.
We had a spacious house when the kids were growing up. It was a place of many family dinners with loud talking and laughing, mountains of food, and love. We had about 40 people over with no problem although it rained inside the house with the body heat of all of our friends. As our children got older, moved out, we thought we'd move to a smaller house. Finding space was a challenge. Having family dinners was a logistical nightmare. So what are we doing? We are building a new building on our property to make up for the lack of space in our "new" house. Thanks to the slow housing market, we still have our old house, the place of childhood memories for our kids. Maybe one of the kids will make our old house their home and a place of many family dinners with loud talking and laughing, mountains of food, and love for a new generation.
We need to live in the moment...savor the present. It might be a lifelong memory for someone someday.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Wiry Abundance
Hair, Hair, Hair. My daughters and I have hair to share. My hair is thick, straight, and very wiry. People say I have enough hair for three or four people. Not only is my hair plentiful, but the strands are very thick. I am certain that if I donated my locks, they could be braided into a cable that could pull a loaded Mac truck across the United States.
Of all of my siblings (there are 7 of us), I probably have the grayest hair..and I probably have more hair per square inch than all of my siblings combined. My dad had soft wavy hair and so did my sisters Cookie and Rose. Two of my brothers are bald. And, I have a full head of gray (salt and pepperish) straight hair.
My hairdresser of over 26 years said that I am famous for being able to grow my hair fast!! For a hula recital, I grew my hair from a short boy cut to shoulder length in three months. Of course as soon as the recital was over, I chopped my hair off and was glad to see it go. My husband and my son beg me to grow my hair but I don't want to hassle with a heavy weight of hair on my head. I hate when I wash my hair, twirl it into a bun for a day's work, and when I get home and let my hair down, my hair is still wet. Yuck. Most women with long hair tame their tresses with a hair band, elastic, scrunchy, pen, chopstick, or whatever is available. If this is the case, isn't it better to have short hair and quit tugging at your roots?
When I had long hair and worked in a high school where many of the girls were hula dancers and had long hair, I would urge them to participate in a Hair Emancipation Day when we would all let our hair down, loose, and flowing free. We tried it several times and found that by the end of first period, everyone had their hair twirled and twisted into tight knots. Such short lived emanacipation campaigns.
If you have short hair, don't you hate it when your hair gets into the infamous "UGLY" stage that no matter what you try to do, it is UGLY? Dig through your box of hats, put on a kerchief, plaster on a handful of super-duper gel...doesn't matter, Your Hair is UGLY. It's like a neon sign of ugliness. I always feel like the first thing people will fixate on when they see me is my UGLY hair!! AARGH!! I mean, my hair can be doing all right and it seems overnight, it grow 2 centimeters over the line of nice hair into UGLY hair and it is torture. And the irritation seems to grow by geometric proportions.
The only remedy to this situation is to go to the hairdresser and get a haircut. Having plenty of straight, thick hair means finding a hairdresser with excellent skills and a pair of strong hair shears!! Snip, snip, snip, the hair falls to the salon floor like salt and pepper snow. Then Hallelujah!!! I am a human again.
It's those little pleasures that make life so wonderful...the miracle of transformation and I'll say, Amen, Amen, and Amen!!
Of all of my siblings (there are 7 of us), I probably have the grayest hair..and I probably have more hair per square inch than all of my siblings combined. My dad had soft wavy hair and so did my sisters Cookie and Rose. Two of my brothers are bald. And, I have a full head of gray (salt and pepperish) straight hair.
My hairdresser of over 26 years said that I am famous for being able to grow my hair fast!! For a hula recital, I grew my hair from a short boy cut to shoulder length in three months. Of course as soon as the recital was over, I chopped my hair off and was glad to see it go. My husband and my son beg me to grow my hair but I don't want to hassle with a heavy weight of hair on my head. I hate when I wash my hair, twirl it into a bun for a day's work, and when I get home and let my hair down, my hair is still wet. Yuck. Most women with long hair tame their tresses with a hair band, elastic, scrunchy, pen, chopstick, or whatever is available. If this is the case, isn't it better to have short hair and quit tugging at your roots?
When I had long hair and worked in a high school where many of the girls were hula dancers and had long hair, I would urge them to participate in a Hair Emancipation Day when we would all let our hair down, loose, and flowing free. We tried it several times and found that by the end of first period, everyone had their hair twirled and twisted into tight knots. Such short lived emanacipation campaigns.
If you have short hair, don't you hate it when your hair gets into the infamous "UGLY" stage that no matter what you try to do, it is UGLY? Dig through your box of hats, put on a kerchief, plaster on a handful of super-duper gel...doesn't matter, Your Hair is UGLY. It's like a neon sign of ugliness. I always feel like the first thing people will fixate on when they see me is my UGLY hair!! AARGH!! I mean, my hair can be doing all right and it seems overnight, it grow 2 centimeters over the line of nice hair into UGLY hair and it is torture. And the irritation seems to grow by geometric proportions.
The only remedy to this situation is to go to the hairdresser and get a haircut. Having plenty of straight, thick hair means finding a hairdresser with excellent skills and a pair of strong hair shears!! Snip, snip, snip, the hair falls to the salon floor like salt and pepper snow. Then Hallelujah!!! I am a human again.
It's those little pleasures that make life so wonderful...the miracle of transformation and I'll say, Amen, Amen, and Amen!!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Zero Calorie Feasting
I just finished Nicole Mones' novel, The Last Chinese Chef and enjoyed it thoroughly. In reading the novel, I could almost taste the food. The five-duck duck dish, the baked chicken which had no chicken meat...just the golden brown skin stuffed with minced vegetables and ham, the 30 crab tofu that did not have any crab meat in it...the artifice of what seemed to be turned out to be something else as experienced by the tastebuds. What a mind trip to savor the flavors with my imagination.
I really want to eat Chinese food now...but not just any kind of Chinese food. Delicious morsels that taste flavor-full without the fullness of overconsumption. I want to eat pillowy buns filled with kau yuk...pork fat that melts in the mouth bathed in red food coloring #5. I want to eat my Aunty Rose Tom's birdnest soup...luscious texture and sublime flavor.
This is the exact opposite of the other book I just read...Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as we knew it. This book chronicles life after a cataclysmic meteor strike...hoarding food, surviving on melting gray snow water, relishing a fresh egg. Two extremes of thought regarding food, and ways of life. Good reminders of the central role food plays in our lives.
Thinking of these two books, I wonder about the perspective of people who don't really care to eat...and I am not referring to people who have eating disorders. They are really missing out on a very pleasurable pastime. Although overeaters spend a lot of time thinking about food, eating a lot of food which may not necessarily be good food, there must be a kernel in there about the pleasure of food gone wrong. I guess I will confess that I like to eat well flavored food, I like to cook good food, I like to watch people enjoy eating the food I have cooked, I like scheming about food to cook. Now if only I can quit the gall durned habit of eating too much...then I'll be a happy baby. Bon Appetit, you fellow food maniacs!!
I really want to eat Chinese food now...but not just any kind of Chinese food. Delicious morsels that taste flavor-full without the fullness of overconsumption. I want to eat pillowy buns filled with kau yuk...pork fat that melts in the mouth bathed in red food coloring #5. I want to eat my Aunty Rose Tom's birdnest soup...luscious texture and sublime flavor.
This is the exact opposite of the other book I just read...Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as we knew it. This book chronicles life after a cataclysmic meteor strike...hoarding food, surviving on melting gray snow water, relishing a fresh egg. Two extremes of thought regarding food, and ways of life. Good reminders of the central role food plays in our lives.
Thinking of these two books, I wonder about the perspective of people who don't really care to eat...and I am not referring to people who have eating disorders. They are really missing out on a very pleasurable pastime. Although overeaters spend a lot of time thinking about food, eating a lot of food which may not necessarily be good food, there must be a kernel in there about the pleasure of food gone wrong. I guess I will confess that I like to eat well flavored food, I like to cook good food, I like to watch people enjoy eating the food I have cooked, I like scheming about food to cook. Now if only I can quit the gall durned habit of eating too much...then I'll be a happy baby. Bon Appetit, you fellow food maniacs!!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Which one triumphs
When you are polyracial, which ethnicity should be the dominant one? Is it politically correct to choose the one with the most possible benefits...i.e., the Native Hawaiian, or the Native American (Cherokee)? Or is it better to choose the ethnicity with the lifestyle values that promote the most happiness as it is played out in financial success, social prestige, personal fulfillment, or whatever spelling for success you choose.
It is no wonder polyracial people are confused as to who they really are. It is a struggle in getting one's head on straight to gain personal insight. Growing up in a plantation town, all the smart kids went into the A class which was made of mostly Japanese kids, some Filipino, Haole, and a couple of Hawaiians. The C class was the "slow" group made up mainly of Hawaiians, immigrant Filipinos. So to have a tall, hunky Hawaiian in the A class was like being a Giant in Munchkinland. Then to be an A class student trying to paddle canoe with the Kanaka kids was like a Geek trying to make it into a powerlighting world competition. See the irony of being all mixed up?
So just forget trying to comparmentalize things, values, traditions, superstitions, and proverbs!! At my age, I figure it is best to embrace it all!! Celebrate ALL the ethnic holidays!! Learn to cook ALL the favorite ethnic foods whether they belong to you or not!! Learn the wisdom of the ancient ones, no matter what language they spoke!! A lifetime will be filled with learning hopefully followed by understanding. What started off as a struggle ends up as a triumphant realization.
Ain't it funny how things turn out?
It is no wonder polyracial people are confused as to who they really are. It is a struggle in getting one's head on straight to gain personal insight. Growing up in a plantation town, all the smart kids went into the A class which was made of mostly Japanese kids, some Filipino, Haole, and a couple of Hawaiians. The C class was the "slow" group made up mainly of Hawaiians, immigrant Filipinos. So to have a tall, hunky Hawaiian in the A class was like being a Giant in Munchkinland. Then to be an A class student trying to paddle canoe with the Kanaka kids was like a Geek trying to make it into a powerlighting world competition. See the irony of being all mixed up?
So just forget trying to comparmentalize things, values, traditions, superstitions, and proverbs!! At my age, I figure it is best to embrace it all!! Celebrate ALL the ethnic holidays!! Learn to cook ALL the favorite ethnic foods whether they belong to you or not!! Learn the wisdom of the ancient ones, no matter what language they spoke!! A lifetime will be filled with learning hopefully followed by understanding. What started off as a struggle ends up as a triumphant realization.
Ain't it funny how things turn out?
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