Da tot of da day, braddah ~ “Go into nature and there you
will find all the brains there have ever been”.
I could just see the earth in Krista Steinfeld. I could feel Hawaii in her passion for
life. True life. Not the hustle and bustle of the chaotic life
of today’s society, but life. Her pono
recapitulated the life of the wild. It
has been a long time since I met a new person like this, and I am ever so
grateful for the sincere message she shared with me and the rest of my
peers. Her message was an important
reminder for me to remember my roots, the roots I have been blessed with. I need to return back to the earth. Recently, I have become so disconnected with
the spirit of the soil. It is the first
time I have ever lived in a concrete jungle.
Up until my senior year in college, I was blessed to call the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado my home and the Ko`olau’s of Kaneohe my home away from
home. I am certainly blessed to live
where I do now in downtown, Honolulu. I
guess it is just part of the necessary duality of my life that God has brought
to me to teach me where I truly belong and to allow me to appreciate and
respect how essential nature is when I do return back to her.
It was refreshing to again hear someone sincerely ask the
plant permission to take their life and then thank the plant and God for their
gift. It privilege to learn about the
medicinal values of the plants that surround my school. Ohia Lehua can be used for lethargy. Ti can be used for fevers, spiritual
cleansing, to reduce fevers, and to aid in the development of healthy eyesight
in infants. Ti root even makes a
wonderfully sweet candy with a high nutritional value. We learned about the dualities of the guava
tree’s leaves and fruit; the fruit aids in relief of constipation while its
leaves relieve diarrhea. I have always
enjoyed eating ulu with honey, but I never knew it could act as a strong
bandage to protect severe wounds. I am
also looking forward to someday trying ulu poi and ulu chips. Hala can be used as an aphrodisiac, to
enhance male vigor, to increase energy, or to simply bring a masculine balance
of energy to those who are out of balance.
The lace fern mends headaches.
The bumpy fern lessens scoliosis.
And of course, coconut water is high in potassium while it naturally
lowers blood pressure while coconut oil is a wonderful oil to cook with because
it doesn’t burn and release free radicals at high temperatures.
Of course a person really needs to make sure that their
spirit is in the right place before they make any of this medicine, because
their mana (energy) will go into the medicine.
A person should make sure their spirit is in the right place before they
do anything. In today’s society, this is
an easy thing to forget. Even when one
performs pule (prayer), they must be sincere because pule is real
medicine. Pule is not just protocol, a
chanting performance, or merely wishful thinking. There is power in prayer.
Because disease has always had both a physical and spiritual
element, traditional Hawaiian La’au Lapa’au focuses on curing the mind, spirit,
and body holistically. The history of
La`au Lapa`au has two sides. While it
helped the Hawaiian thrive and live in health, it was made illegal when Christian
missionaries started colonizing the islands.
After nearly 100 years of being illegal, it was finally decriminalized
in 1965 by the state of Hawaii. Yet to
this day, there is a continued skepticism along with a scientific and spiritual
devaluation of the traditional medicine.
In essence, there has been a “deification” of science as people truly
believe that Western medicine is the highest form of medicine. I really hope and pray that the Hawaiian
people and the rest of the world can find pono on multiple levels of society
from the individual level to the family unit to an entire society. The rebirth of La`au Lapa`au I know is
already and will continue to help move this process forward.
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