6. Aloha!

This fascinating exercise comes my study at Frankie Briers' Wise Fool School^[1]. Each week of the course, he invited us to take on a practice and see what emerged from it. This particular week's exercise was Aloha^[2].

In Hawai'ian, Aloha means both hello and goodbye. And also: love. So we can say hello with love, and we can say goodbye with love.

But you can also turn it around: the word also teaches you how to love even when it's hard: keep saying hello and goodbye to whatever arises in the moment.

On the in-breath, say hello to whatever arises, whatever feeling or thought or sensation. Just say hello without worrying about it or getting attached to it. On the out-breath, say goodbye to whatever is there, even though it may linger.

Inhale, hello; exhale, goodbye.

We can trap ourselves in a box with our beliefs just as much as we can armour ourselves with tension. We build a box labelled identity and sit squarely in it. But if someone approaches with love – who can really see me as I am in this moment – they can set me free. Just being present and welcoming who I actually am now. What an incredible gift!

So I went for a walk with our dog this morning, and as the path emerged from the scrub and trees onto the braes, the low moorlands, I started breathing in Aloha and breathing out Aloha.

Dog bounded up. Hello Scallywag. And off again. Goodbye Scallywag.

Thoughts rushed forward, clamouring to be seen and spoken, but there was already an unruly queue, only kept in check by the cadence of my stride. Instead, I welcomed sounds: Hello hiss of distant cars; Goodbye hiss of distant cars. Hello peaceful birdsong; Goodbye peaceful birdsong.

Hello hills; Goodbye hills.

It is a mild winter/spring day today. My breath misted below my nose. I took my tops off one-by-one till bare-chested: Hello cold; Goodbye cold. Hello tingles and shivers; Goodbye tingles and shivers. Eventually, as I kept going up the path, a furnace-like heat emerged from within: Hello hot; Goodbye hot. My skin the membrane between the two.

My mind started wandering – how do I capture these moments, these alohas? How do I write the trees? the gorse? Oh! Aloha deer crossing the path just before me.

Hello lengthening sinews, Goodbye twisting tissues. Hello view. Goodbye view out there.

Walking back down the path: Hello anxiety that I’ll bump into someone with my shirt off, what will they think? Goodbye opinions of imaginary others.

Hello idiot. Goodbye idiot.

Hello fool. Goodbye fool.

Hello stupid idiot. Goodbye stupid idiot.

Hello wise fool. Goodbye wise fool.