Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 3, 1 March 2014 — 'Home sweet home' [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

'Home sweet home'

Maybe it's b e c a u s e I'm getting old and my eloek is winding down that I yearn for home as I never have before. We all have our personal sense of home. It's the high country of Waimea for me, Kohala Hema. For generations of Parkers, Bells, Brighters, Spencers, Purdys and

Lindseys, Waimea is our ku'u home, our town, the piko of our universe, our "comfort zone," where the iwi of hundreds of our kūpuna lie at rest. I have my home and so do eaeh of us as keiki o ka 'āina whether we are from Kāne'ohe, Nānākuli, Lāna'i City, Kaunakakai, Līhu'e, Hanapēpē, Kula, Paukūkalo, Hāna, Hilo, Pāhala, Miloli'i or Kapa'au. We are forever pa'a (tied) to the 'āina where we entered the world.

So mueh has been written about home. 01iver Wendell Holmes, "Where we love is home-home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." Robert Frost, "Home is the plaee where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." Maya Angelou, "The aehe for home lives in all of us, the safe plaee where we ean go as we are never questioned."

Oprah Winfrey, "I think that when you invite people into your home, you invite them to yourself." Thomas Fuller, "What children hear at home soon flies abroad." George Carlin, "Your home is your refuge." Author unknown, "A house is made with walls and beams. A home is made with love and dreams." Proverb, "A man's home is his castle." Home is a plaee, the plaee where we make our grand appearance on

the stage of life, are nurtured and grow and mature into "good and industrious men and women" (Ke Ali'i Pauahi's will). Home is a state of mind, that extraordinary cornerstone whieh anchors us to these islands, whieh Mark Twain aptly described "as the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any oeean." Home is a perspective, a macro viewpoint whieh compels us to say unabashedly, "There's no plaee like Hawai'i," and from ground level to be unashamedly and proudly speciflc, "There's no plaee like Kapa'a" or Waipā or Maku'u or Waiohuli or Lahaina or Ka'ā or Lanikūhonua or Hale'iwa or Kaimukī or Kaūmana or Kawaihae or Ho'olehua or Hālawa. Those of us who were born and raised in the islands know what it means to have deep roots, a sense of plaee, to be connected and kin to 'āina, 'ohana, peopleandplaces. I remember when I left home to go to Kamehameha so long ago. I loved being at Kamehameha but

always looked forward to returning home to Waimea for holidays and summer vacation. The plane ride on the Hawaiian Airlines Convair was almost an hour. If I had a window seat as the airplane neared the Big Island, I would press my face against the portal anxiously waiting to see Kawaihae Harbor, my Unele David's house and Pu'ukoholā Heiau eome into view, then the Kohalas and the green, often mist-shrouded hills of Waimea. If I sat on the right side, I couldn't wait to see Puakō, Hualālai and Mauna Kea. Soon enough the plane would touch the tarmac, eome to a stop at the terminal and when the door opened the cold Waimea air would rush into the cabin on windy days. Our mom would be there waiting to take us (me and my brother) home to One Chesbro Lane where we belonged. We all have our own personal story about home. I'd love to hear yours and share it in a future eolumn. Email me, boblindsey 808@gmail.com. Aloha. ■

Rūbert K. Lindsey, Jr. Trustee, Hawai'i