Just call it Storytime with the Magpie! Another beautiful Native Hawaiian legend was shared when I was visiting the Hawai'i National Volcanoes National Park on the island of Hawaii, to visit the goddess Pele and see how she's been shaking things up in her home within Kilauea. I took advantage of one of the best things about national parks, getting a ranger-guided tour. I'm a big supporter of all our national parks -- they are all treasures meant to be enjoyed as well as educate, so do consider visiting a few of them in your own state and abroad. I especially J'adore the ranger tours at Volcanoes because it's not just the science of the earth, but you get an incredible cultural history of the land and everything that grows on it. I was lucky to have Ranger Dean Gallagher guide me through the park, and his knowledge and love of the local culture is too great a resource not to take advantage of.

Walking through the park, you'll notice bushes growing all over, with rough, gnarled bark, dusky small leaves and a strikingly bright flower that looks a little like a sea urchin, all spiny, yet soft. This is the Ohia tree, a plant native to the islands, usually one of the first vegetation to grow from a lava flow. Clearly, it's a plant with moxy. Ranger Dean shared the heartbreakingly beautiful story of the ohia tree and its red lehua blossom, along with a performance of him playing the traditional native nose flute. The breath of a person, the ha, is considered a powerful thing, but the air coming from the mouth is not as pure as the breath that escapes from the nose, hence the flute being played using the nose. It ensures the music is coming from a truly sacred place.

The legend of the ohia tree starts out with a handsome warrior named Ohia, who plays the nose flute so skillfully, his music and physical beauty captures the eye of the goddess Pele, one whose passions are easily ignited. She's a hot gal who falls for the handsome musician -- who can't say we've all been there, right, ladies? But Ohia's heart belongs to another, the equally beautiful Lehua, whom they have already pledged their love to one another. Pele's jealousy is enraged! This seems to happen a lot with this goddess. Pele angrily turns Ohia into a hunched-over, gnarled tree, twisted and bent like an old man. His beauty and ability to play music was taken from him, cursed to live as an ugly outcast on the lonely cooled plains of the lava flows. Lehua was heartbroken, refusing to leave Ohia, not caring what he looked like, remaining true to the beauty of his heart. The other gods took pity on her, so she was turned into the bright, delicate bloom that now bears her name, forever reunited with her cursed Ohia, and showing that true beauty can grow in even the most harsh of conditions. It's also said that if you pick the bloom, it will rain, as you are separating these lovers and causing the sky to weep. So when you see the Ohia tree and the Lehua blossom upon it, remember the lovers who knew beauty comes from within, and just admire from afar, not picking the flowers.



Jaunty Fine Print:  photographs by Denise Sakaki

 

Aloha to you -- this Bird has a childhood J'adore of old myths, and a recent trip to the tropical wonderland of Hawaii provided the opportunity to hear more Native Hawaiian stories that are associated with everything around the islands, especially the flowers that grow everywhere. Walk along the rocky shores and you'll find a waxy-leaved plant that grows among the cracks of the lava rock calld Naupaka Kahakai, meaning Naupaka by the sea. If you look closely, there are several tiny white, pinkish-purple blooms dotted all over the plants, but you'll also notice the flowers are unusually-shaped. Instead of a perfect symmetrical round bloom, these are distinctly half-moon shaped, as though someone cut each flower in half. Go higher into the mountains, and you'll find another type of Naupaka, looking nearly identical, except for the blooms, which also have the half-shape, but the direction of the petals take up the opposite side of the Naupaka that grows by the ocean.

There are scientific explanations of this, but I like the legend, which tells of two devoted lovers who arose the jealousy of the goddess Pele, whose fiery passions live within the volcano Kilauea. She became enraptured by the handsomeness of the young man, but he would not leave his lover, even at the risk angering such a tempestuous goddess. Pele was enraged at such a rebuff, so she cast her fury at the lovers, hurling molten hot lava at both, separating them and chasing the man into the mountains and the woman towards the sea. Pele's sisters watched this jealous rage and did not approve, wishing to rescue the lovers in the only way they could -- they saved the man by changing him into the mountain Naupaka, and transformed the woman into the Naupaka that grows by the sea. The lovers were saved from Pele's fire, but their beautiful flowers were only half, as each lover could not be truly complete without the other. The Naupaka grows in the mountains as well as by the sea, blooming only half-flowers, but the day the flower becomes whole is the day these lost lovers will be reunited.

Sad story, yes, but a bittersweet reminder to keep your loved ones close, cherish them dearly, and keep beauty in your heart for all days.



Jaunty Fine Print:  photographs by Denise Sakaki