It’s day 60+…a man just asked me for road directions to Haleakala Crater so it may appear that I look like I know Maui well.

Maybe I do (it’s a small island after all). Wherever I go, I see people I know, or hear someone yell my name from across the road.

So after exchanging hellos/hugs, I find a quiet place on a beach, spread out my blanket, dig my toes into the sand, and put a t-shirt over my face…and let my hardworking (knee) bones soak up the sun…

People seem to still have a healthy interest in my broken patella/near body experience…particularly my elderly clients…and so there’s plenty of deep verbal consideration for how to “up” our quality-of-lifes…this life and the afterlife. Words cannot explain how much these exchanges mean to me, how they enrich my Hawaii life. Tearing up (usually on their side)…is the norm with these sessions (I sometimes tear up after they leave, behind the front desk, staring a second too long at the rubber therabands in their plexiglass case.)

(Before I arrived to Hawaii, I considered volunteering in hospice as another Near Death Experienced friend of a friend does here on Maui…but it seems that I get the luxury of helping remarkably healthier older clients who also are charitable, and take direction easily/learn quickly. They have amazing stories and maybe I’ll share some here one day.)

On the music side of things, I’m learning a song in Hawaiian…all the phonetic nuances where a “w” sounds like a “v” and a “k” sounds like a “t”…Both Auka and Lisa (and others in the households) have been kind enough to answer my random pronunciation questions, not to mention hear me warbling and strumming (and sometimes laughing…at myself) the same song countless times into the indigo night.

And in terms of music here on Maui, I sometimes unintentionally busk… like yesterday in front of Paia’s 76 gas station (I was waiting for Lisa to pick me up there)…a woman asked me to play a few songs and then after complimenting me she palmed me a few dollars and drove off. (Not sure if “soliciting” was kosher, I went inside the station and gave the attendant some change for their temporary concert venue.) Either way, spontaneously performing for all types of people (gym clients, tourists, the homeless, grocery store customers/employees, etc.) has been a lot of fun that always hones my mental/heart music skills.

Ok, off to the gym to torture — I mean workout — a nice young man needing to gain strength for his Hawaii tourist job…

xo,

Hbb

P.S. Thank you to Chris A. for creating the FTP link to reflect the HTTPS-ness of this website while I was busy working at the gym. (This site’s always been secure…just needed a little more TLC in the site’s background…) As always, thanks to everyone for their purchases and kind feedback…

During my life time I experience many run-ins with royalty…and although I like to talk about it like l just met the human-version of a very-glam Bigfoot, I’m not fazed at all:

…Slept at the Jodpur palace and met the king and queen, along with their dog Pepsi…sure…Winter 2000.

…An invite to stay at a royal family’s New England home…the invite is via a comicbook-creator friend I met in a meditation workshop and the brother-in-law is royalty…Summer 2008…

…Sarah, Duchess of York suddenly wants to visit my school…yup, Summer 2009.

…Friend of the Royal Hawaiian family…you got it…happening now…

…One of my mentors is personally invited to work/live in Thailand by their queen…sure…and I want to visit him within the next few years.

So now that I play the ukulele and now know my name (like a Hawaiian, I have many first names…English and Korean…not to mention my blog’s url/song moniker)… I remember specific stories of my maternal grandparents hiding during World War ll. They sent their daughters (my mom was one of them) to the remote country side where they met an angry female relative’s wrath and this is where they learned the physical abuse and neglect that was later inflicted on me (pertaining to the latter, I refused to put up with it…I’m small but even my Germanic 6’2′ wasband admitted to be physically intimated by me…) and later forgave by asking questions about long-lost childhoods, not to mention establish my own abuse-free relationships.

After the war, the US (and Korea) eliminated the monarchy…and the Japanese rulers (who had targeted Koreans with the last name “Suh” since the late 1800s) no longer could assassinate anyone in my maternal lineage.

Truth be told, I’ve rejected any family inheritance. Sorry, folks (Literally, folks…)!

And it was only this past year where I decided to google my middle name…as I’m the only one of my filial generation with a middle name, much less the name of my maternal lineage: Suh.

As a child, visiting my maternal grandparents, there was much wealth with many servants and strange men who picked us up from the swimming pools and spas (later learned they were “chauffeurs”). There’s tapestry after tapestry, everything hand-sewn by my grandmother and great grandmother, along with cabinetry in-laid with mother-of-pearl, and spoons and chopsticks forged from Sterling silver and gold. When my grandparents shipped a lot of these items to my Midwestern home, I was in both wonderment and embarrassment as they were so ornate compared to our house’s environ’s cornfields and my friends’ quilted bedspreads.

Nobody spoke about the war and my wise, gorgeous, soft-spoken aunts married into South Korea’s wealthiest families. (Their older sister, my mom, grew up uneducated and uninterested in history, but did support the American economy with her shopping habits thanks to a physician husband.) The first time I ever saw a cellphone was in my aunt’s chauffered car (…opposed to this Helenbobelen’s life…the last time I ever saw a flip phone was last week along Hana Highway).

A seer — as many of my close friends can attest (the readings were recorded) — told me I was “royal in many lives” (as well as a martial artist many times over)…which makes sense because I’m not particularly impressed by wealth but impressed moreso by the custodial aspect of well-crafted creations…and the value of what money can attain…not to mention the expression of capabilities and sustainable capabilities that emerge thereafter. (And while in France, my French family took me to castle after castle after castle…) Another friend, also a seer, kept urging me to research my own lineage but I stubbornly ignored her…well, I guess I might be royal/semi-royal in this here, lifetime, too…

For now, I’m very much a minimalist…and your personal Earth-friendly vocalist/artist/goldsmith spending quality time with the Royal Hawaiian family…but I’m amused at the possibility of the alleged “Law of Attraction” allowing me to meet interesting royalty and bring to me to the reflection of a Westernized strong-female role couple with a sprinkle of ancient Asian royalty lineage…

But you all just know me as Helenbobelen, right?

xo,

Helen

P.S. Fun Fact #1: 50% of the S. Korean populace has the last name of Kim, Park, or Lee as back in the day, most were not allowed a last name at all.

P.S.S. Fun Fact#2: This blog’s url also doesn’t allow for last names…