“Pono means more than doing the right thing in a given situation, but rather living life with balance, harmony and integrity, seeking to improve the surrounding world.” ~ Meaning of Pono in Hawaiian & How it Affects Culture

Being Pono is an important value to me. Here on the last day of the July Ultimate Blog Challenge, I am proud to say I only missed one day, towards the end, while I has having stress related to car issues. All of my energies went in to the immediate and beautiful solution, getting my car back on the road in record time. I truly am blessed, the Universe has my back, and Everything Works Out Perfectly.

The car breakdown was also a big message to me to “slow down”. I get to doing so much, too much, and I challenge myself to really find the flow to be able to do it all. I succeed for a little while and then I crash and burn. A woman I once knew said that the way I was living was not “sustainable”. She also told me I couldn’t heal myself, so I’ve questioned her wisdom, but I’ve also been given pause to think about it.

Stress kills, the stats show it. I have a couple of stress related dis-eases. One of them is what I call my little stress button. My body lets me know when I am at a serious stress point by activating (swelling) a lymph node in my neck. It has been a pain in my neck, figuratively and literally for a couple of years, maybe five, a long time. It used to be there all the time. I could feel the pain if I touched it. It was a hard little nodule but never showed up as a problem on a scan. When I am taking good care of myself, staying in a state of pono, in balance with nature and all that is, it disappears. When I start getting stressed it starts growing and getting hard. As I settle down, so does it. Our bodies are so interesting if we listen to what they are telling us. This one took me awhile to figure out.

Meeting this challenge to write every day was my own idea, I wanted to get into the habit of writing every day. I’m proud of my 30 posts for the month of July. Perfect is a journey. Life is not perfect. I’m not perfect. Is that why I allowed myself to miss a day? We shall see if I created the habit of writing every day. I was feeling like I lacked discipline, and that is what I was looking for in doing the challenge, a way to discipline myself into doing it daily. I love to write, I have a lot to say, I love to talk story. 😉

Last night talking to a friend and fellow writer about this, she suggested a shift in perspective to the writing being something I get to do, because I love it. Not something I have to do. She recognizes my free bird spirit not liking the discipline and offered a simple shift in attitude that may create a bigger shift in not needing discipline as I will just do what I love, regularly. With zest, passion and curiosity, I can feel the excitement for the projects I want to do.

My Wellness Adventure is a story that must be written. I may start it over or I may complete the shitty first draft. I know that I am not the same woman who started that story back in 2018. Much of my life has changed due to the deep soul work I have been attending to for several years. I’m not completely well but I am cancer free, have been for awhile and will be for the rest of my life if I have my way.

I want to write my Alaska Adventures as well. I have a tote full of pictures so the Alaska adventure gets to be a picture book possibly. That sounds fun. I may not remember the names of some of the people involved, I trust they allow me that grace.

My latest inspiration is something that has been tickling my brain for a couple of years. I want to write a Hawaiian Foods cookbook. Exploring and writing recipes using Hawaiian plants to meet some of the needs of people with special diets. Gluten free, sugar free, egg free, nut free, so many people have so many allergies now days. I’m pretty sure much of it is due to the food consumed in their lifetimes, and their mother’s lifetimes. I feel I have some of that going on myself. While I was going through cancer treatment I ate very little sugar as cancer feeds on sugar. That didn’t mean I couldn’t eat something healthy that was naturally sweet. I had learned to cook macrobiotically in the early 90’s, so I understand using things like maple syrup or rice syrup.

I am feeling Pono, living Pono and enjoying this amazing life I am blessed to wake up to every day. I intend to keep it interesting while finding balance, harmony and living in integrity. It’s a fun life. Watching to see what opens up as I move into a new phase of writing and living pono.