Hemolele

'Ano'ai me ke aloha e ko Maui! Aloha Kalikimaka! Ahh, there's a feeling of Christmas in the air! As we welcome this holiday season it seems that we all have a little more aloha in our hearts as we try to exemplify the values of our kūpuna. This time of year reminds me of a beautiful Hawaiian word, hemolele, which means perfect, faultless, flawless. It also means holy, as in the mele Pō La'i ē or Silent night. Hemolele is used in the line that describes the baby Jesus, me ke keiki hemolele ē, the perfect, holy child. Now, perfection is something we all strive for but haven't quite reached. Hemolele can also mean pure in heart, virtue and goodness. Characteristics that are a little more attainable for us. When we look at our ancestors we see that they constantly strived for a sense of hemolele. Their work was maiau, clean and neat. They believed in po'okela, excellence and in certain areas, like religion and worship, things had to be hemolele. Now there are some things in our lives that we have control over and we can be hemolele. In school you can get a perfect report card or perfect attendance. You can be the perfect gentlemen or plan the perfect event. Whatever it may be if you put your mind to it perfection can be achieved. But more importantly, we can all strive to be more pure in heart and in our intentions. This is probably the best way we can incorporate hemolele into our lives. Tune in tomorrow as we learn the words for Silent Night in Hawaiian. Aloha nō, a hui hou.