My Loose-Tooth Birthday

Yesterday I was at work in the middle of writing a new blog entry about The Lion King when my 1:30pm appointment arrived. Uncle Ken (musician extraordinaire, pastor and mentor) walked into my office with his son Pono. Last time I saw Pono he ran up to me with a couple of friendly caterpillars hanging off of his shirt while yelling, “Aunty Kanani, come play with my bugs!!” This expressive little 8yr old always brings a smile to my face and today was no exception.

“Aunty, Aunty, Aunty, tomrphmhr----“ He stuck two fingers into his mouth and continued what I think was a lengthily explanation.

“What?” I grinned at him, “Pono I can’t understand you with your fingers in your mouth!”

“Todayismyloosetoothbirthday.” Pono opened his mouth real wide, waggled his baby tooth with his tongue, and explained to me how he had woken up this morning and found his first EVER loose tooth. He then proceeded to wiggle it victoriously and maintain a garbled running commentary dialoguing his excitement.

For the last two hours after my meeting the only thing that I was able to think about was Pono’s “Loose-Tooth Birthday.” I mean really, I like celebrating. I happily celebrate my birthday, Easter, Christmas, the big holidays, the state holidays, the federal holidays, and even the little random ones that give me the day off from work. But I have never before celebrated a “Loose-Tooth Birthday.”

Children have a way of approaching life as though every day is a celebration. Every little event, ever single milestone, however small, is worth thanking God for. And not JUST thanking Him, but actually jumping up and down in joyful celebration. There are days (sometimes, weeks and months) when I forget that.

I attended a One Love Ministries women’s retreat last year where the theme was “Child-like Faith.” The Lord recognizes the heartfelt innocence of children and encourages us to model our hearts after them and “become like little children.” (Matthew 18:3) Children are not afraid to speak the truth in any circumstance; their world views are not shaped by a need to be politically correct or by hidden agenda’s. We’ve all seen those AT&T commercials... It’s not complicated!

Pono has inspired my challenge for all of you for the month of February. Every single day should be a celebration and a day of thanksgiving. Every. Single. Day. Friends, I challenge all of you to find something that you want to give thanks for every day this month and celebrate it unapologetically. Celebrate it privately, give thanks in prayer, celebrate it publicly, throw a party with friends, go to dinner with family, do whatever you need to do, just CELEBRATE it. You deserve it!

So although I don’t have any loose teeth to celebrate this morning, I can and will declare today “Soup-for-lunch Day!” And I will celebrate my thankfulness that on this cold and rainy Wednesday God has provided me with some delicious, hot, ramen for lunch.

What are you celebrating today?

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“Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.’” (Matthew 21:16)

Such Great Heights

1st Sunrise of 2014 (Pillboxes, Lanikai)

I’m NOT a morning person. No matter what the circumstance I am the girl who wakes up, snoozes her alarm(s), puts her pillow over her head and goes immediately back to sleep. My friends and family can attest to the non-committal morning grunt I usually deliver in greeting, and woe to the unfortunate soul who makes the mistake of waking me up.

My best friend Maureen AKA Mo is my adventure buddy (and by my estimation... a morning person). Day or night she is always ready for a spontaneous journey. She is the first person that I would call if I wanted to visit the center of the earth, pan for gold or stick my flag on the moon. I have been blessed with many friends for many occasions, but I’m pretty sure that none of them are as spontaneous as Mo is.

However, please do not let that fool you... I am NOT spontaneous. The kind way to describe me would be well-organized, well-planned, well-rounded, but the more realistic descriptors include control-freak and anal-retentive. I’m the kind of person who sets aside time and plans to be spontaneous. (And even then, it’s a struggle!)

Recently, I’ve had so much creative juice flowing in-around-through my brain, that I’ve had trouble sleeping.  Last week during a bout of insomnia I texted Mo at midnight to see if she was up for an adventure...

A few hours and 3 cups of coffee later I had written another chapter of my novel and eaten 2^nd dinner at Wailana Coffee House. It was 3:30am. Mo (being the sporty-in-shape-hiking-adventurer that she is) had been trying to get me to go on a hike for weeks, and it seemed that the perfect opportunity had just arrived.

Exhibit A: Mo and Kanani climbing up the Lanikai Pillboxes in the dark at 4:45am

Exhibit B: Kanani sliding down the mountain after slipping on some loose dirt

Exhibit C: After much excitement Mo and Kanani successfully reach the bunker at 6:00am ish and hunker down to watch the sunrise

EPIC REALIZATION: I’ve never really watched a sunrise before. Sure, I’ve seen the sun at 6:30am while stuck in traffic driving to work, but I’ve never actually sat down and watched it creep up over the horizon line. Have you?

This sunrise hike has inspired some serious introspection this week. I’ve decided that I don’t want to be one of those people who go around and tell everyone that I’m trying to make a change in 2014 and then continue to snooze my morning alarm. I feel like I’ve slept straight through the past 5 years. How is it that I have never seen a sunrise? What else am I missing out on?

God has blessed us with so much beauty all around us and I feel like I’ve been missing out on the BIG adventure. I want to WAKE UP! I want to reclaim my child-like faith and enjoy the spontaneity that means trusting in HIM and HIS plan for my life (regardless of how I think or feel).

Please join me in celebrating the fact that each and every morning the sun rises and you and I are still taking a breath! The song “Such Great Heights,” by The Postal Service has a wonderful chorus, [They will see us waving from such great heights "Come down now" they'll say. But everything looks perfect from far away "Come down now" but we'll stay.] I am reminded that when we reach fantastical heights and allow ourselves a moment of spontaneity to stop and appreciate the sunrise there will always be people calling us to come back down. Don’t listen to them. Dear ones, you deserve ever single sunrise God has blessed you with, don't give them up for anything!

Here’s a toast to Mo, to my very first sunrise of 2014, and to all of the adventures in my future and yours!

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“He is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, When the tender grass springs out of the earth, Through sunshine after rain.” (2 Samuel 23:4)

THAT Girl

I can’t remember the last time I stopped to smell the roses. My current job keeps me so busy that most days I leave my house when it's still dark and I return home after the sun has set. People tell me all the time that I’ve “accomplished a lot for my age,” but sometimes I feel as though I’ve really accomplished nothing at all. Do you know the feeling? Sure, I’ve advanced in my career, received my college diploma and written the pre-requisite academic publication, but despite my success I still feel like I used to be so much more.

I used to be the girl that started petitions to “Save the Frogs!” just because it was the right thing to do, the girl who stayed up all night reading classic fantasy epics and Harry Potter fan-fiction all because she wanted to learn how to use a magic wand, the girl who fearlessly faced down bullies, and loved to wear orange trench-coats lined with pink pineapples just because it made people smile. I used to be THAT girl.  

In elementary school I wore red plastic coke-bottle glasses that were the nearly the size of my entire face (no joke). I got braces, put my hair in pig-tails whenever I felt like it, and wore high socks with my shirt tucked in. I was the girl who never cared what anyone thought, as long as she was following her heart, the one who always fought for the underdog and spent hours trying to debate people about moral ambiguity, love, and world peace just for the hell of it. Oh how I miss THAT girl.

These days, I feel accomplished when I wake up early enough to go to the gym for 20 minutes. I pat myself on the back when I remember to pack home lunch so I don’t have to bust out the subway coupons (yet again). If I manage to make the 2hr drive home without drifting off behind the wheel I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

I feel like my brain is dripping down the side of my face and pooling in a pathetic puddle on the pavement. Where did THAT girl go?

Since starting this blog and revitalizing my novel I have written more in the past 21 days than in the past few years. I thought it would be a burden of discipline, forcing me to set an alarm and a color-coded time slot on my calendar. But writing this novel is like breathing. It’s like finally getting a breath of fresh air after days without oxygen. I feel like a furled bud opening for the first taste of sunlight after a heavy rain. 

When I was THAT girl, I understood that anything is possible if you are willing to work hard enough, and my belief in myself was unshakeable. But I am no longer THAT girl.

Beloved, things have happened to you. Things that have shaken you from your very core and shattered your world in earthquake-like fashion. You have fought in epic battles, and you have been the heroes and heroines of your own novels. The victories have been great, but in some cases the costs have been greater.

The woman I am today is fighting herself. I see-saw between joyful gratitude that I have enough, that I can finally feed my family AND pay the mortgage, and bitter frustration that the world seems a lot smaller than it used to be.

But writing this long-awaited novel has reminded me that THAT girl, with her wide eyed innocence and her voracious appetite for life, love and the pursuit of happiness, she’s still inside of me. I tried to shut her and her unrealistic naiveté out of my head, but the floodgates of my heart have been reopened and she is once again infiltrating my spirit and encouraging me to stop and smell the roses. And boy do they smell good!