Aloha is about Community  

Community Contributed

Opinion by Rick Baptiste

Community is a body of people having common interests such as the common enjoyment of Aloha Spirit.  Imagine more than 7000 peeps on Molokai, just too blessed to be stressed and enjoying life.  Enjoyment comes in the sharing of aloha with others.   Enjoying aloha will spread like wildfire as soon as it passes 10 percent, the tipping point, or 700 peeps of our community.  Let’s re-visit “ALOHA” as an acronym to give us a daily practice: “A” for Akahai – Kindness expressed with tenderness, “L” for Lokahi – Unity expressed with harmony, “O” for `Olu`olu – Agreeable expressed with modesty, “H” for Ha`aha`a – Humility expressed with modesty and the last “A” in Aloha for Ahonui – Patience expressed with perseverance.

Here are three recommended steps. Step one in our daily practice is to focus on akahai.  Start your day with kindness in some way or fashion.  Start with a smile and then add a little friendly conversation.  Step two is to be aware.  Throughout your day, be aware of other ways to be kind. The key, found in the movie “Pay it Forward,” is to encourage the recipient of kindness to pay it forward to three people.   Third step is expectation, your confident, joyful hope and desire of your future.

Expectation is very important as it is the strong belief that something is going to happen. Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”  And Steven R. Covey advised, “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”   In other words, when you are expecting something good or bad is going to happen it probably will.  There is power in expectation to give us hope for the future. We want every young one growing up on Molokai to have great expectations, to have hopes and dreams of a great future.  We want a community that will dream with them and encourage them every step of the way.

Every day and in every way we can be a blessing somehow, in some way.  Let’s work together and bless Molokai.  So remember, Molokai you are “too blessed to be stressed” and “aloha is about community”.