Lei of Aloha Florida
Aloha pumehana ohana,
Ti grows easily and in communion with all of the elements of our islands. Ti grows, and when the time comes, we call chants for permission and out of deepest gratitude, and harvest the ti. Cut from its stalks, and stripped from its spines, we weave the ti into leis… leis of remembrance… leis of grief… leis of healing… leis of compassion, community, and love… leis of aloha that we share with our broken and hurting world… leis of aloha for world peace. These are times of great loss, in Paris, in Orlando, in Las Vegas, and now, in Parkland. Parkland, Florida, where on February 14, 2018, seventeen school children and teachers lost their lives to a gunman, not much older than they were… so we weave the ti… and so we make the lei.
Our hearts called out, and answers came back to us from the children of Maui, of O’ahu, of Kauai, of The island of Hawai’i. The children wove the ti. The children blessed the ti with chants and sacred hula. The children of Maui, O’ahu, Kauai, and Hawai’i carried and gifted the ti lei of aloha to the shattered people of Parkland Florida.
We change the world, and bring healing and strength to the brokenhearted. We bring our mana, our hope, our grief, our healing, and our aloha to weave into the lei. We become the aloha in the lei. We become the lei. It is our hope that we never again must come together to weave a lei of grief, but that we continue to come together to weave our ancient ti into strands of blessings and love and aloha.
Lehualani Center supports the Lei of Aloha project. The center believes we can build community by living in aloha and supporting the next generation to do the same.
If you would like to make a donation to Lehualani Center, who supports The Lei of Aloha for World Peace, please do so by clicking this link: https://www.paypal.me/LehualaniCenter
Lehualani Center is a 501c(3) Non-Profit . Donors can deduct contributions they make under IRC Section 170.