Giving Back
My father told me, "Take out something from your lunch that you really like." I took the orange from the brown paper bag and held it up. "Now leave it on the wall." I did -- and then I looked up at him. "You always give back. Leave something special for the gods."
I was probably about six years old when this first happened. We were hiking in Mākaha Valley and it was the early 70s. I'm pretty sure we were at Kāne‘aki Heiau, though we didn't know the name for it back then. At lunch I ate my Spam musubi and drank a can of guava juice. I wished for the orange back. I don't remember what we were hiking for -- maybe looking for old bottles, maybe gathering guavas for jam, maybe just looking around. My father liked hiking all over the Islands, and since I was the oldest, I always got to go with him. I didn't understand why we had to leave a favorite thing on the wall of the heiau -- I only knew that we should always sacrifice something of value to a greater being or force. Dad is a man of few words, so it never occurred to me to ask him to explain.
- A quote by Alani Apio
Reference Cited
State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). 2003. Wao Akua: Sacred Source of Life. Division of Forestry & Wildlife. Honolulu, HI.
