Day 3: Finding Your Path by Aaron Wolf

July 23rd, 2019

Finding Your Path
by Aaron Wolf

Today was a pretty packed day. Alongside our exploration and restoration of Hawaiian cultural sites, we were taught to find our own paths in life. In the morning, as we stood on the site of a retired sugar plantation, thousands of acres in size, our guide James Aka'u slipped in his first lesson of the day, “Nobody knows anything.” As James divulged the historical significance of the Kawa coast of southern Hawai’i, he fed us our first lesson of the day, that it is up to us to discover our own truths, to embrace what we believe, and to not allow other's biases to influence our experiences. 

As we awaited our traditional Hawaiian dinner, following a day we all just experienced together, James explained the significance of an Oli. An Oli is a chant meant to signify intent used before entering a place regarded with respect. When explaining how to respect locations we frequent, James said, “it is not my place, let that place teach you.” This simple sentence held within it the wisdom all of our guides have been trying to instill into us from day 1. The lesson that we as humans are in a symbiotic relationship with the natural world around us, we are not superior, we are not almighty, we are one with our world. This is the lesson to take away from today, that the act of Aloha doesn’t apply to those around you, or to other organisms, but to everything on this earth we interact with, whether it be our grandmother's house, a volcanic sand beach, or the lazy sea turtles lounging on the sand.

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