Allure

Keep in mind, I'm a white girl from Michigan. Well, half Native American. From my strawberry blonde hair, light green eyes, fair skin, it's less than apparent that I'm 1/2 NA.

From a very early age, around 5 years of age, I had a fascination with what was out there in the world that was exotic, that was very different from the small town I lived in. When my grandfather would receive his new issue of National Geographic magazine, he and I looked at it together. It only whetted my appetite for an exotic experience.

I knew I wanted to get out of the small town I lived in to explore the rest of the world! 

The ocean, the rain-forests, the beaches, they called to me.

When I was told that I could go to Hawai'i as my first military assignment, after BMTS and Tech School, I knew it was where I wanted to go. I was as good as on my way!

The first time I was able to watch real Hawai'ian Hula, I was mesmerized. Listening to the live ukulele melody, the falsetto singing in the Hawai'ian language, watching the graceful movement of the wahine who danced with a sensuous sway, a beautiful smile on her face!

It touched my heart in a place I had never felt before. 

It was peacefulness, love, kindness, spirituality ~ all in one.

In later years, with my daughters, I learned to dance Hula. Far from perfect, less graceful than I would like, yet, I feel it deeply in my heart.
When my hips begin to sway in kaholo, I feel hula in my heart. When hearing the slack key guitar or the gentle strumming and light "pick-pick" of the ukulele, the feeling takes over. 

Peace, happiness, love, sweetness in my very being.

No ka oi!