For Malulani

May 2. Mauna Kea. The summit. The top of the tallest mountain on earth, measured from the bottom of the sea floor. The place in Hawaii where land and sky meet. In all my 35 years of life in Hawaii, I had not made it all the way up, until now.
Just before we left, I scurried around looking for an appropriate Hawaiian offering to take to the top of the realm of Poliahu. I wanted to commemorate the birth of Keola Beamer’s Malulani: ‘Neath the Shadows of Stars, written for us, there at the point where Hawaii is closest to the stars, and to show respect for this most sacred of Hawaiian places. I found a flower shop run by two charming Hawaiian gentlemen near our hotel where a fitting Hawaiian offering could be prepared; we chose a maile lei wrapped in ti leaves. In addition to showing respect and honor, maile is a symbolic plant of Laka and the hula – appropriate, I thought, to celebrate a new work of Hawaiian art.
By the time we got to the top, it was nearly sunset, and the thinness of the air at 13,000 feet was not conducive to moving fast. Jim tried to make it to the summit with our maile and ti puolu, but because of extreme cold and approaching darkness, it was not safe to go all the way, so he stopped at a rocky point along the path, composed a short prayer of thanks and aloha, and left the offering nestled in the rocks.

May the gods accept our humble gift and celebrate with Keola, the Spring Wind Quintet, and our new child, Malulani. As we perform this new creation here on the island of Hawai'i, itself being created anew, let us reconcile in harmony the mind and the spirit, the ancient and the modern, the sound and the silence.
-- Marsha Schweitzer