Huna Article

Huna International

Daily Huna 2
by Peggy Kemp

I'm writing at a computer in my old bedroom in my parents' house in Washington State. The computer is noisy and the printer is old and has to be fed by hand. It was my first ever computer printer, and it still prints quite well if you are willing to give it one sheet at a time. On the wall above me hangs a sepia-toned watercolor of a mother nursing her baby; drawn by an old school friend I haven't heard from in over 30 years. I went through high school in this bedroom, only back then it was painted a bright blue and covered with posters. We repainted it a deep raspberry color that disturbed my dreams. Now it's cream. This whole house was painted in bright colors inside when it was new. It has seen a lot of changes in the last 34 years. This room was on its way to becoming a "cyclone room." I've straightened it up a bit, but it still holds many treasures from the past.

My grandmother's old bedroom is now a "cyclone room," so-called by my mama because it's a room she can just throw things into, and it looks as if it might have been hit by a really big storm.

Everything changes. Everything changes continuously. If it is not changing, it is probably dying, which is only a different form of change. As the Borg say, "Resistance is futile." Change will happen whether you resist it or not, so why make things more difficult than they have to be? I've had plenty of opportunities to use Huna in my daily life this month, and many changes to apply it to. My father died on December 4, after a long relationship with cancer. This is one of the biggest changes of the many our family has gone through together.

He held on until I arrived, and my sister asked me if I could generally help hasten things along and let him know it was OK to go. YIKES! How can I do that, I thought? I don't have a magic phrase, or a Hawaiian chant, or the faintest clue what to do. Then I thought about all the new things I've learned in the last year, about past lives I've re-experienced, about transitions, about portals.

Daddy was standing in front of the Big Portal, and it didn't seem he needed much encouragement to walk through. I talked to him about how much he'd done for others throughout his entire life, how he'd worked hard for conservation and recycling, how he'd loved and been loved by so many people. I told him he could always pick up his tasks in his next life, if he hadn't quite completed his work. I let him know our mother would always be taken care of, never want for anything. I gave him permission to leave the pain and suffering of his current physical body behind. My sister and I sat by his side and talked of all the fun times we'd had as kids camping with the family at Lake Creek, near the Little Wenatchee River, when the deer would come up and lick our faces. We told him what a great daddy he'd been for us.

His parting was peaceful. Quite a sweet moment, actually, with our entire family around him. I sent off a wish for an easy transition and chanted the Aumakua chant: Aumakua, mai ka po wai ola, ho'ikea mai i ke ola. "Higher spirit, out of the inner world bring forth the water of life and manifest this blessing. We toasted him with eggnog laced with rum, one of his favorite winter drinks, and then packed up his gear and left the hospital.

His spirit has stayed with us in this house. He's everywhere his things are. His antique carpenter's planes, books, boots, hats, and harmonicas all speak of him. We've been seeing rainbows in the gray Northwest, and feeling him near us as we go about the business of living. Today my 80-year-old mama decided to blow the cedar needles off the driveway in back. We spent the afternoon outside in the garden, and again felt him near. He loved the garden and his flowers.

My dad was, as one of the neighbors said the other day, a "grand old guy." Down at the end of the hallway, on top of the filing cabinet, is a plaque he made from a piece of scrap mahogany. It sums him up and constitutes his daily advice to me: "NO SNIVELING."

In all of this, I've felt over and over again that the supposed veils between the spirit world and our daily world are only as thick as we care to make them. There are no limits. We are all in touch with each other, whether physically near or not. I feel and joyfully receive the loving energy my friends and aloha family are sending me from around the world. Every time I think of Kauai, I know that people on Kauai are thinking of me. We are all in this together.

I've had a chance every day to see how our focus drives our emotions and our actions. I love being here with my mama, but our ways of thinking are quite different, and I need to work within her frame of reference as much as possible. I hold my focus on love, on what she needs most from me right now, acceptance and support. The last three weeks have been intense. So many calls, so much paperwork, the memorial to plan and carry out. She is a great example of carrying on with life, and continuing to care for others.

We decided early on to focus on the present moment, to be just where we were in the process of accepting this loss. No recriminations or blaming oneself for things not noticed or not done perfectly. No "should have dones." Being in the present has allowed us the freedom to cry when we feel sad or stressed, and also to laugh when we feel happy or something is funny. Just being with someone in the present moment can be the greatest comfort you can give to another person. Sitting, just sitting together, not saying anything if there is nothing to say, but knowing the love is there.

Love is the key to living with change. Being accepting, caring, open, and flexible all make it easier, but loving is the key that carries us through. Being willing to just sit there in the peace of a loving silence with someone, or hold them as they grieve, without expectation that they'll change or be anyone else than just who they are, opens up a big space for change, because it is safe then to explore the personal power you still have left for the new tasks at hand. Life goes on for the living, and the power to go on is in each one of us.

What are the most effective ways to deal with change? Investigate your awareness - what essential ideas are you carrying? Can those ideas expand? What rules have you set up that don't apply to the present situation? Where is there room to grow? What do you choose to focus on right now? What is the loving and compassionate path through stressful times? Do you recognize your strength and growth through the many changes you've encountered on your life path?

Sometimes it helps me to focus on just one of the Huna principles at a time. I'll throw my colored shaman stones and ask which principle is the one for that day. Very often these days I get the red stone, kala, freedom. There are no limits. The veils are only as thick as we draw them. If we can dream it, we can do it. Every change brings us a terrific opportunity to grow and learn. If we treat it all as a grand adventure, it can actually bring us a lot of fun alongside the heartbreak. Our family is too goofy and fun-loving to be sad all the time! We are giving ourselves the freedom to be happy and laugh often. We are using Huna daily.

Copyright Huna International 2003