This past weekend I was blessed to have attended the Courage to Lead retreat at St. Anthony Retreat Center on Oahu. Led by Dr. Joanne Cooper and Jeff Creswell, two amazing educators, the retreat is a program of the Center for Courage & Renewal founded by Parker J. Palmer. What a gift and a blessing to my journey personally and professionally.
I went there to rejuvenate my spirit after a long year and most especially to sort through my vocation and career choices. I left it with a deeper sense of gratitude for the blessing of meeting Rev. Wako Puanani Burgess, who I’ve come to learn as someone who is described as a “mediator, community developer, facilitator of community-building and conflict transformation.” She wrote this poem, He Alo Ahe Alo, which was selected as one of the poems for our weekend reflections. Even in such a short time, I felt really inspired by the kindness, warmth, and depth of this Zen Buddhist priest.
To me this poem speaks my heart’s longing for the local people of Hawaii to connect with Micronesians he alo ahe alo (face to face) and vice versa. For there in the chance of a meeting between two human beings he alo ahe alo, they stand the chance of connecting on different levels. And in that personal connection community gets formed. Relationships deepen thus displacing ignorance, prejudice, stereotypes, and debilitating negativity. And when those virtues are co-existing between two humans, they can become partners in digging the lo’i (taro patch) deep. In the end, we learn to lead courageously… face to face.
He Alo Ahe Alo
By Puanani Burgess
He alo ahe alo
(Face to face)
That’s how you learn about what makes us weep
He alo ahe alo
(Face to face)
That’s how you learn about what makes us bleed
He alo ahe alo,
(Face to face)
That’s how you learn about what makes us feel.
What makes us work.
What makes us sing.
What makes us bitter.
What makes us fight.
What makes us laugh.
What makes us stand against the wind.
What makes us sit in the flow of power.
What makes us, us.
Not from a distance.
Not from miles away
Not from a book
Not from articles you read
Not from a newspaper
Not from what somebody told you
Not from a “reliable source”
Not from what you think
Not from a cliff
Not from a cave
Not from your reality
Not from your darkness
But,
He alo ahe alo
(face to face)
Or
Else,
Pa’a kou waha. (Shut tight your mouth)
‘A ‘ohe o luna o ka pali;
Iho mai a lalo nei;
‘Ike I ke au nui ke au iki;
He alo ahe alo
(The top of the cliff isn’t the place to look at us;
Come down here and learn of the big and little current,
Face to face.)
And come and help us dig, the lo’i deep.
by Puanani Burgess
