“...My eyes can doubt that this will be
and yet my heart will always see
A million moons over Hawaii”
A ho’olewa, funeral, was held last week on Oahu. Ho’olewa means to float as a cloud, to lift up and carry, or funeral. A magnificent Hawaiian woman, Danette “Dani” Ku’uleimomi Hanohano, died this past December at the age of 87. She would never call herself magnificent, but she was and well deserving of this honor. Aunty Dani was a student of the great hula master, Maiki Aiu Lake. She loved Hula.
Dani and her husband Philip were and continue to be very important to the halau (hula school) I practiced with when we lived in Waimea: Halau Hula Ka No’eau. The Hanohano’s were at all of our major Hula performances on Hawaii Island and Oahu. They were also at important hula ceremonies. They loved my kumu, Michael Pilii Pang, and naturally all of us as ‘ohana. They were a true expression of aloha, and they taught by example, by how they lived their life.
Since I couldn’t be at Aunty Dani’s ho’olewa, we danced a hula to her favorite song, “A Million Moons Over Hawaii,” in classes these last two weeks. Sung by Hawaii’s Lady of Love, Loyal Garner, I had heard it on the radio when it first came out in 1992. But this time I totally fell in love with it. It’s a song of deep aloha, fitting for Aunty Dani.
Mahina (moon) is very important in Hawaiian culture. Hawaiians used the moon phases as a calendar system and determined when specific activities should take place including fishing, planting, harvesting and ceremony. In hula it can mean a connection for dancers to ancestral knowledge and practices.
In Zen, the moon can represent the illumination of enlightenment as it lights up the darkness. It’s waxing and waning is none other than impermanence…nothing remains the same, everything changes.
The image of a million moons over Hawaii is breath-taking! When we think that we are in a galaxy of 400 billion stars, a million moons may even be too small a number. 😊 As the last line in the song says, “…my eyes can doubt that this will be and yet my heart will always see a million moons over Hawaii.”
How do we open our hearts to see and appreciate the beauty that is in our lives – good and bad? Even though clouds may temporarily obscure the moon, they do not actually touch or change it. That luminous nature is always there and it’s big enough to include all of the clouds. How do you see it? ...breath by breath.
Malama pono (take care of body, mind and heart),
June Kaililani Tanoue
Kumu Hula
P.S. Talks I think you'll like:
8 Qualities of a Great Person (Part 2 and includes Hula at the end) by June Tanoue https://youtu.be/w2DUsNazsis
8 Qualities of a Great Person (Part 1) https://youtu.be/_xkwRclpqrE
Not Knowing is the Most Intimate by June Tanoue https://youtu.be/TrC5YfMmOEM
Gate of Sweet Nectar by Robert Althouse https://youtu.be/K8iKrdgZWYE