Malama, take care

Aloha kakahiaka e nā makamaka! Good morning friends! Let’s explore yet another Hawaiian word and Hawaiian value, mālama. Literally mālama means so many things. We know the more common translation – to take care of, tend, attend, care for. E mālama i ka hale. Take care of the house. E mālama i kou kino. Take care of your body. It also means to preserve, protect, beware, save, maintain. E mālama i ka 'āina. Care for and protect the land. In addition, mālama means to keep or observe, as a taboo; to conduct, as a service; to serve, honor, as God. Mālama pono means to care for properly, to be careful, to watch out. We are taught to mālama kekahi i kekahi, care for each other, but when we really think about the concept of mālama, it begins with each of us. In order to mālama others, mālama our kuleana, mālama 'āina, we must first mālama ourselves, take good care of ourselves. When we are pono, we can better care for others and take care of our many kuleana in life. When we are out of balance, lacking pono and spiritually and physically depleted it is difficult, if not impossible to mālama pono anything or anyone else. Time for personal reflection! As we reflect I’m sure we can all find ways to mālama ourselves better – our kino, our bodies, our 'uhane, our spirit, our no'ono'o, our thoughts, our hilina'i, our faith and our hana, our actions. Our challenge today is make some time for self reflection and then to act and make those changes we need to make. E mālama pono kākou! Aloha nō, a hui hou . . .

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