Without Breath, Learning to Breathe...

Aloha in the Hawaiian language means affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. Since the middle of the 19th century, it also has come to be used as an English greeting to say goodbye and hello.

A folk etymology claims that Aloha derives from a compound of the Hawaiian words ALO meaning "presence", "front", "face", or "share"; and HA, meaning "breath of life" or "essence of life."

In ancient times Hawaiians greeted each other by touching each other at the bridge of the nose (honi) therefore "experiencing and exchanging the breath of life". This is very honorific as this represents the exchange of ha--the breath of life, and mana--spiritual power between two people.

The coming of the foreigner and the hand shake, in place of the honi, as a greeting created the word "ha 'ole" meaning "breathless."

Life in paradise is good! I have been in Oahu now for 1 month and 15 days. As usual I have not wasted any time jumping "head first" into life here. My job is going well. I am learning a lot about the importance of agriculture in Hawaii, as my boss is the chairman of the House of Representative's Agriculture committee. I also received my first pay check in 3 years, it has been a long time since I filled out a checking deposit form.

Her and I have been venturing around the island having a blast. We have been surfing at diamond head and Waikiki, took a stand-up paddle board to Kaneohe Sandbar, ate poke (cubed Ahi tuna sashimi marinated with Hawaiian sea salt, a small amount of soy sauce, inamona, some sesame oil, limukohu seaweed, and chopped Hawaiian chili pepper) and drank tall boys of Heineken in heaven, enjoyed a sun set at the blow hole, spent love day on a stay-vation (a vacation in the area where you live) at the Moana Surf rider in Waikiki, watch the fire work show from Waikiki on Fridays at 8.00 p.m. from our balcony, strengthening my yoga practice with plenty down dogs, warrior A poses & Savasana adjustments and waited out a tsunami warning with brownies, tofu curry and carrot cake with no tsunami ever arriving.

A parting shot...

All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity."
- Robert F. Kennedy

Aloha, with breath and essence of life.

Home-o-lulu

What a year 2010 has already been! From Bucharest to Morocco, to Madrid, back to Bucharest, to Michigan and finally to Honolulu, Hawaii. That was my itinerary from December 26, 2009 through January 13, 2010. There are 12,718 Kilometers, 7,903 miles and 6,867 nautical miles between Bucharest and Honolulu. I made the move across the world out of Love, curiosity, the spirit of living life to the fullest and the passion to shake up the world.

It was an interesting feeling leaving Romania. Back in 2007, when I arrived there, every thing was so new and foreign, never in my mind did I ever think that one day my life in Romania would become my constant, my steady, my home. It did and I look back on my time there with great pride, full of fond memories and a warm smile. Words cannot describe what I experienced over the past 35 months, but what I can say is that they were life changing, humbling, daunting at times but more than anything inspiring.

I was in Michigan just for a quick second. Despite my short stay it was great to be back at my original home with family. I unpacked my bags one day and started repacking them the next, only this time the wool sweaters and long johns stayed in the closet.

I have only been in Honolulu for 6 days but I am loving it. Life moves at a much more relaxed pace, the people are friendly and take time to say "good morning" to strangers and things like the sun set seem to be much more than just another sun set. Each and every morning I wipe away the sleep from my eyes to the stunning panoramic view of downtown Honolulu and Waikiki beach. I have started work at the Hawaii State Capital and am looking forward to all the new experiences it will have in store for me as this session's calendar progresses.

The real reason for moving half way across the world...Her. After spending the last 6 months of seeing each other for 6 days here, 2 weeks there, skype dates each morning and evening, here we are "better together" in Honolulu.

Aloha!

There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing But I can try for your heart,
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer at least for most of the questions in my heart, like Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together...

- Jack Johnson

Morocco

Happy 2010! Morocco is a beautiful country with a very unique culture and such an amazing and ever changing landscape. Cruising the streets of Casablanca snacking on freshly steemed chick peas, dodging the endless flow of scooters in the narrow streets of Marrakech's madina, getting lost in the beauty of the Atlas mountains and Sahara desert as its beauty changed by the kilometer, bringing in 2010 directly under a full blue moon, watching the sun slip away behind the Atlantic on a sea wall in Essaouira...