The Tale of Two
A song of hope weaving our past and future together
This story goes to Mozaic, our common space for colearning through cotelling.
To my ‘ohana, our hope our aloha. The time is now. Aloha nui loa.
Stelio
For centuries he had been growing. By the rich fire coming from the heart of Mother Nature he had fed himself, his wit, power, his adventures and achievements, his desire to grow above anything else. For centuries he had learned how to control, build, define, dominate, shape, connect, illuminate, change.
Day after day, he had turned more and more fire into stone, building up his stance. All of his intent, all of his effort, all of Mother Nature’s energy he was able to gather, had gone into his endeavor. To stand tall and strong, above anything else. And there he was now, standing above everything else, alone.
Alone.
A long long time ago
There was a volcano
Living all alone in the middle of the sea
He sat high above his bay
Watching all the couples play
And wishing that he had someone too
Bigger and bigger he grew, building walls of cold stone. Alone.
And yet, the very fire that was flowing through him, strikingly, had his spirit vibrate, feel, hope. That same energy he was trying to sell out on climbing and growing taller, kept feeding his heart.
Silently and tenderly, Nature had continued feeding him. And within that warmth, his soul was never lost. It was in there, deeply buried into all of the stone, singing. Raising a song of hope.
And from his lava came
This song of hope that he sang out loud
Every day
For years and years
“I have a dream
I hope will come true
That you’re here with me
And I am here with you
I wish that the earth, sea, and the sky up above
Will send me someone to lava”
All the things he had done were fading out in his memory. Meaningless. He felt incomplete, hopeless, cold. The stone everywhere, suffocating his fire. Fear mounting, with the darkness. What once appeared nice, successful and bright, was now drowning him in regret, guilt, and fear. Despair was bubbling in the last feeble streams of his fire, threatening to freeze him down forever.
He did not know, though, how his fate was about to change. For decades, the song his heart had raised had propagated and resonated. It had been seeding the stream of time, in the stories at first, rolling around the world. Then in the books, in the movies, in hearts everywhere. For decades, that song had been taking roots in the soil his doings had unknowingly generated.
All that fire, directed, transformed, beyond his understanding and most certainly his intent, was already sprouting the new. Entire ecologies had been growing while he was busy building his stance on walls of stone. What he needed for being complete, for being saved, was already there, listening.
Listening.
Years of singing all alone
Turned his lava into stone
Until he was on the brink of extinction
But little did he know
That living in the sea below
Another volcano
Was listening to his song
Nurtured by his hope, she grew. Her intent on listening, not on shaping. Her energies on becoming, not on being. She flowed with Nature, whirling with the tides, learning from the artistry of clouds and the architecture of seashells.
She laughed with children and danced with ocean waves. The warmth of Mother Nature’s fire was her connection with everything, the patterning of being that made her alive, moment after moment. She understood the richness of differences, the beauty of uniqueness, the sacredness of each existence. She listened and grew, until she was ready.
Every day she heard his tune
Her lava grew and grew
Because she believed his song was meant for her
Now she was so ready to meet him above the sea
As he sang his song of hope for the last time
“I have a dream
I hope will come true
That you’re here with me
And I am here with you
I wish that the earth, sea, and the sky up above
Will send me someone to lava”
And there she was, up through the sea, ready to meet his hope with all of her life. But, was it too late? He was out of fire, there was no hope left in him, no song, no way to reach out to her. He was barely alive, eaten by his own doings, suffocated in the stone he had built. In despair.
He cried. He understood. The way he had been looking at the world, did not serve his own dreams. What he thought he should define, build, and improve, he had killed, day after day. He cried. And he prepared for his own end.
A voice reached him. A song started vibrating in the wind. Just when life seemed lost, he felt a warm voice hugging his heart. “You are safe, I am here with you” — he felt. His own hope, now flourishing in her voice, was coming back to him. Fire, Nature, Life. She sang. He listened. He was not alone.
He was not alone.
Rising from the sea below
Stood a lovely volcano
Looking all around
But she could not see him
He tried to sing to let her know
That she was not there alone
But with no lava, his song was all gone
He filled the sea with his tears
Watched his dreams disappear
As she remembered what his song meant to her
“I have a dream
I hope will come true
That you’re here with me
And I am here with you
I wish that the earth, sea, and the sky up above
Will send me someone to lava”
A river of joy embraced them. Happiness, peace. So long they had felt alone. No more. His doing melted with her listening, becoming grace. Her sensitivity with his experience yielded humility. His agency and her sympathy sprouted patience. In a gentle harmony, they became complete.
All made sense. All the efforts, the hope, the tears, the listening. Nothing seemed any longer wrong, nor right. All was just complete. As they came together, the meaning of their dance showed in the music itself. Every thought, every action, the depth of all intent, all was now beating in harmony.
Finally, they were One. The sky and the ocean were dancing, Mother Nature shining. Every living being celebrating their encounter — homecoming. All earth had just become brighter. Whole. Home. Aloha.
Aloha nui loa.
Oh they were so happy
To finally meet above the sea
All together now their lava grew and grew
No longer are they all alone
With Aloha as their new home
And when you go and visit them this is what they sing
“I have a dream I hope will come true
That you will grow old with me, and I will grow old with you
We thank the earth, sea, and the sky we thank too
I lava you"
All things in this world are two, in heaven there is but One.
~ Queen Lili’uokalani
Auntie Pilahi Paki, who was a keeper of the secrets of Hawai’i tasked several of her students to be prepared for the future when the world would be in collapse. She spoke of the time when Hawai’i would have the remedy to save the world and the remedy was Aloha. In 1970, at a Governor’s conference she introduced modern Hawai’i to a deeper understanding of Aloha:
Aloha is to be in the presence of life, to share the essence of one’s being with openness, honesty and humility. It is a way of being, a way of behaving, a way of life. It is a commitment to being real. It is a commitment to accepting others and giving dignity to who they are and what they have to offer.
Aloha is a spiritual principle that conveys the deepest expression of one’s relationship with oneself, the creative and life-giving forces, one’s family and community, one’s friends and strangers.Akahai — meaning kindness (grace), to be expressed with tenderness;
Lokahi — meaning unity (unbroken), to be expressed with harmony;
‘Olu’olu — meaning agreeable (gentle), to be expressed with pleasantness;
Ha’aha’a — meaning humility (empty), to be expressed with modesty;
Ahonui — meaning patience (waiting for the moment), to be expressed with perseverance.
Before you go, if you’ve found value in this post please give it some claps.
And if you want to stay in the loop, follow Stelio on Twitter. If you’d like to know more about him, start here.
