Nose Flute

Bed & Breakfast

North Haven River

JOYCE HAU'OLI CARTER

Excerpts from the Book

Maydeen Lei'ohu Excerpt 2 Again I accompanied wisdom keeper Lei'ohu Ryder and my friend, Maydeen 'Iao to the peace village in Vermont. During our stay there, the Native American elders told their stories and instructed us in the ways of peace and harmony for all people. One afternoon, we returned to the arbor where another wisdom sharing by the elders took place. At the end of the day, we were all given an assignment to "walk the corridors of our minds in dreamland, get rid of the excess baggage within, and forgive." We were told that we would share our dreams in the prayer circle the next day. As evening approached, I returned to the bed and breakfast where I stayed the year before, exhausted, and again needing a good night's sleep. Given my recent history of insomnia, I wondered if I would dream at all, and if I did, of what. The next morning when I woke, I realized that wondering had led to reality. I hadn't dreamed of anything, and now I considered what I would do or say if during the Saturday prayer circle I were asked to share the "walking." I would have to admit that my "corridors" had been empty and bare. I headed out to the compound. When I arrived at their lodgings, Lei'ohu and Maydeen were finishing up their prayers, and they invited me to join them. As a wisdom keeper, Lei'ohu was dressed all in white with a colorful cloak called a kihei tied to her shoulder. She had been invited to share her protocols with us at the sacred fire as three seventeen year old young men prepared to spend twenty four hours in the Vermont mountain wilderness dreaming dreams and finding their true selves. This day proved to be a busy one, and the hour was quite late when I returned to my lodgings. I slept poorly, waking again and again with dreams I couldn't remember. I woke for good at 4:00 AM, this time with a vivid dream embedded solidly in my mind that shocked me awake. The dream was reminiscent of one I had experienced a few months before in which Hawaiian angels known as kupuna had come to me, and I had refused them. In this dream, however, unseen angel hands held up a large, white placard, and on it words were written in huge, bold, black print. "GREETINGS FROM YOUR KUPUNA ANGELS" This message thrilled me. It was validation. It was a second chance. It was an answer to my prayers, and the angels had returned to me. The content of the dream was at once both astonishing and exciting. Now was definitely the time to put up or shut up. I grabbed the writing materials I had placed on the bedside table to record what I had received. The pencil once again had a mind of its own, an angel mind that wrote the message instead. "We are HERE WE are HERE WE ARE HERE" Again I questioned myself asking, "What should I do with this message?" Once more I thought, "What if I'm trying to mimic Lei'ohu?" This time, though, I welcomed whatever answer I would be given. In fact, a team of wild horses couldn't have kept me from it. As I left the bed and breakfast, I was grateful for the solitude that allowed me to think. I headed down the rural route to the river road as the sun was rising, this time intending to stop by a swift-flowing stream. With my head whirling in a confusion of thoughts, I wondered what I would do if I were asked at the arbor if I had traveled the corridors of my mind in dreamtime. Would I speak of the words in the prayer circle? I had not told Lei'ohu anything yet about either of the spirit dreams. What would I do? When I approached the river, I was compelled to park the car in an area lower than I had the year before. I followed a small footpath, and as I walked, I could hear a roar that became louder and louder until I found myself standing on a huge platform of rock high above a torrent with a voice of thunder. The boulder shuddered with the power of the falls. Taking a quick glance about me, I saw that I was surrounded by cliffs topped with tall evergreens. The granite walls formed a kind of natural amphitheater with the open blue sky for a ceiling. Without consideration and with legs shaking, I began to sing a Hawaiian chant. The oli or song was soft at first and then built in depth, timbre, and decibel. I expected my voice to be drowned out by the water's boom, but rather what emanated from my throat was a sound that rivaled it. This voice was huge, and it was not my own. The sound grew bigger and bigger, culminating in a final wail that filled the entire open space in which I stood. The voice scared me. At first I believed that the amplification of the chant came from the spot in which I stood with its natural acoustics, but this resonance went far beyond the physics of sound as I understood it. I ran from the place, sobbing. Still weeping and shaking uncontrollably, I left that site, and driving to a second spot where I could walk down to the river, I found myself in the same area I had visited the year before. I touched the mountain-chilled water to my forehead, lips, and chest, indicating my thoughts, words, and heart feelings of gratitude, humility, and awe. Giving myself time to recover, I prayed until at last my private ceremony was over.

PHOTOGRAPHS and QUOTES

All quotations come from the text of the book "In the Presence of Angels"

1. Kukuipuka Heiau Kukuipuka is an ancient heiau, a sacred temple located on the Hawaiian Island of Maui high on the northeastern slopes of Mauna Kahalawai, an extinct volcano now known as the West Maui Mountains. Kukuipuka Heiau is a place of worship for all people, a place of love and healing and peace. In the shape of a square, Kukuipuka stood, so clean, so regal, the land falling below to the open sea and the great volcano Haleakala to the distant east rising in all her glory.	Kukuipuka Heiau
2. Wash of the Waves The sand was undisturbed by human footprints. Only the tracks of the water birds were visible. I stood alone in the place where the wash of the waves converged. With the water swirling around my feet, I scooped up salt water, sprinkled it over my body, and entered the sea.	Wash of the Waves, Maui
3. Spirit Light I turned once more to Kahalawai. The early light of sunrise and the Spirit Light over the mountain were breathtaking. The colors continued to heighten until each ridge glowed gloriously in the Light of the Creator. At last the sun peeked over the rim of Haleakala, illuminating one area in a single ray of burnished gold that reached far down the slopes of its sister to the northwest. I believed it could only be spotlighting Kukuipuka Heiau, and later I found out that, indeed, it had been so.	Spirit Light
4. 'Iao Stream Torrents of rain had fallen sometime during the night, and the river was running hard and full to its banks. Except for its rushing, burbling song, all was silent here. The sun had not yet pierced the leafy umbrella of the treetops into the depths of the water. The stillness brought with it a great sense of peace and well being.	Iao Stream
5. 'Iao Needle I walked the path below the bridge that crossed over the place where the two streams joined, picking three tiny white star-blossoms that grew wild along the way. High above, the famous needle, carved from the side of a cliff face by erosion of wind and rain, pointed its craggy finger to the sky.	Iao Needle
6. Lei'ohu Ryder She was dressed in white, a long-sleeved top and trousers rolled up to just below the knee with a cape draped over her upper body, knotted at the left shoulder. She wore a second drape like a skirt around her waist, turquoise in color and patterned with black symbols. Her feet were bare. Around her wrists and ankles she had bound and knotted the tough but pliant leaves from the ti plant.	Lei'ohu Ryder
7. Wilbraham Talk Story I was amazed that words shared with honest feelings from the heart could calm and soothe, and how much people understood the meaning of the term "aloha" without ever having visited Hawai'i. In a talk that I gave at a local social club, I picked up my shell trumpet and sounded its deep, mournful tone. The room became quiet. I sang a chant Lei'ohu had taught me, and conversation ceased altogether. I gave my talk, and once again, aloha won the day.	Wilbraham Talk Story
8. West Maui Mountains (Kahalawai) As we drove east to west through the cane fields on our way to our hotel, what looked like a peaked mountain range rose in misted mystery on one side of the road--the extinct Kahalawai, now know as the West Maui Mountains.	Mauna Kahalawai
9. Haleakala On the other side of the road loomed the massive mound that could only be the dormant volcano Haleakala, mighty protector of the island. Straight ahead, the ocean swells sparkled in the hot, tropical sun like a treasure trove of precious gems, while behind, trade winds blew the slender cane into shining green waves of their own. The sight was magnificent to behold. It was Maui.	Haleakala
10. Kukuipuka Heiau The walls and all they contained covered a large expanse of land, much bigger than any other heiau I'd visited. I had thought it would be built of black lava as so many Hawaiian heiau are, but these sandstone walls were white.	Kukuipuka
11. Massachusetts Classroom I made arrangements to spend a day with five language arts classes at our local middle school. I knew that an opportunity to connect with many kids of this age was rare. Seventh graders are still young enough to be enthusiastic about things unique and special. I had given the teacher twelve topics from which to choose, and they selected history, legends, language, customs, music, dance, and geology as subjects.	Dancing Hula
12. Maui Classroom We talked about baseball, football, and soccer, and finally I said, "Has anybody noticed that when you ask me about what's different between you and the kids at home, my answer is often that it's the same there as it is here on Maui?" Heads nodded, and I said, "The lesson for today is that we have much more in common than not. If I took our kids out of my hometown and placed them side by side with you guys, they would fit right in, and you would become friends."	Maui 7th Grade
13. Seafood Restaurant The hostess approached the table and asked us as a group if we were locals. Lei'ohu responded that, of course, we were. I looked around, and our friends were the only Hawaiians in the room. I had never considered it before, but this restaurant catered primarily to tourists.	Maydeen & Aunty Mahilani
14. Seafood Restaurant In spite of the fact that everything was happening in a very public place, it was as if we were in our own little world. When we finally got up to leave, I looked around me. Every eye in the restaurant was trained on us. The patrons' faces reflected a mixture of messages. Oh, you poor thing. What the hell was that all about? Are you okay? Little did these people know that I had just been blessed. Little did they know how nurturing, how loving the experience had been, and that I had received a healing that was as much spiritual as physical.	Joyce & Lei'ohu
15. Michael - Alapaki - Julie - me Lindy, Al, Julie and Michael seemed to receive by insight and intuition. They were the realists, the doers. Julie and I seemed to receive through dreams and visions, internalizing what we were given. We were the idealists, the thinkers.	At 'Iao Valley	Lindy
16. Sunset The previous evening, the sunset had been particularly glorious, as if Ke Akua, the Creator, were painting the sky from His palette in shades of bronze and gold, deep pink and rose in preparation for the day to come.	Maui Sunset (photo by Patty Quade)