An Abundance of Energy: An Intentional Property in Harmony with Nature
By Cynthia Sweeney Once, people didn’t use such words as sustainable and organic because everything just was sustainable and organic. The earth provided, and people lived completely off the land. We can do that again today, only with state-of-the-art technology.…
Speaking the Language of Love: A Conversation with Kahuna Kalei‘iliahi
By Cynthia Sweeney Our kāhuna, or our indigenous elders are our spiritual and physical connection with where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. Kāhuna have optimism about our spiritual evolution on this planet and…
Community Supported Agriculture Grows Up on Hawai‘i Island
By Cynthia Sweeney Each Thursday, Lark and Steve Willey pack up their specially outfitted van with boxes of freshly picked spinach, beets, leeks, mushrooms, and other seasonal fruits and vegetables from their farm in Waimea, and deliver them door-to-door. In…
Aunty Elizabeth Malu‘ihi Lee: Lifelong Weaver Seeks to Pass on Hawaiian Tradition
By Cynthia Sweeney Growing up in Kohanaiki in the 1930s during the Great Depression, Aunty Elizabeth never imagined that one day people would come to Kailua-Kona from around the world to learn lauhala weaving from her. “I never knew I…
Freeing Willy, Hawaiian Style: Hawai‘i Island’s Whale Entanglement Response Network
By Cynthia Sweeney More than 10,000 humpback whales migrate to the Hawaiian Islands each year, mostly from Alaska, to give birth. And it is estimated that 30 percent of those whales, adults as well as calves—have been entangled in fishing…
Healing the Land Takes a Big Vision: Andre and Jyoti Ulrych and Starseed Ranch in Kohala
By Cynthia Sweeney This is the rugged and windswept coastline where King Kamehameha I rested after warfare. This raw and scenic countryside is also old, depleted sugarcane land, devoid of nutrients, with elevated levels of arsenic and unfit for growing…
Be It Ever So Tiny, There’s No Place Like Home: Tiny Houses on a Big Island
By Cynthia Sweeney In 1970, the size of the average, single family home in the U.S. was 1,500 square feet. In 2009, in the country that originated the phrase “Super-size Me,” that average peaked at 2,630 square feet. After decades…
Coping with Cancer: A Journey and a Place to Chill at Kokolulu
By Cynthia Sweeney He is a professional counselor who has traveled the world giving workshops in stress reduction using techniques such as acupressure and massage. He also spent 20 years studying qigong with a Chinese monk. She is an oncology…
Gille Legacy: The Man Who Paints With His Nose
By Cynthia Sweeney Gille Legacy does not have the distractions that the rest of us do. Unable to use his body since birth, he is not confined to it and lives largely—both figuratively and literally—in his imagination. And the peace…
A Vegan Evolution: 40 Years without Meat
By Cynthia Sweeney It’s easy to dismiss peace of mind and peace on planet Earth as utopian ideals. However, a visit with our vegan friends, with 40 years of a truly peaceful lifestyle under their belts, gives us tangible proof…
The Empowerment of Community: Jim Channon Promotes Self-Confident Resiliency for the Future and Potential Disasters
By Cynthia Sweeney The drumbeat of our messages about sustainability has just gotten a little bit more intense. The recent cataclysmic events in Japan and New Zealand remind us of our own vulnerability, to the point where we’re not only…
Between a Rock and a Soft Place: Hawai‘i Island Retreat at Ahu Pohaku Ho‘omaluhia
By Cynthia Sweeney Jeanne Sunderland recalls first being brought to the “gathering place of the stones” by her teacher, Kumu Tommy Sullivan, over 20 years ago. They arrived by canoe and were silent as they explored the land. Like a…
Hollywood Calls Local Boy from Hilo; Still, His Heart Stays in Hawai‘i
By Cynthia Sweeney Pomaika’i Keko’olani still shakes his head in disbelief. A local boy arrives in Hollywood, and fresh off the plane, he is greeted by a chauffeured limousine that whisks him off to a major studio for an audition…
