We go through life waiting for someone to notice us, respect us, and maybe fall in love with us. Our hearts get crushed because our expectations aren’t met but it’s time we change our perspective. Shift our mind into loving ourselves.
I want to share with you the story of a beautiful soul and how she influenced me to become the woman I am today. My holistic lifestyle sounds fancy but I’m trying to relive her indigenous practices.
Josaphine Kauihailua (Manu) Lindsey is my great grandmother
DELIVERED: 6 Feb 1906 Hawaiian Kingdom
DEPARTED: 5 Aug 1996 (aged 90) Hawaii, USA
BURIED: National Memorial Cemetery of the PacificHonolulu, Hawaii, USA
Josephine K. Lindsey, 90, of Nanakuli, a supervisor for the University of Hawaii Extension-Hawaiian Language Club, died Monday in St. Francis Hospital. She is survived by sons Charles A. Manu, and David E. and Philip Kamai; daughters Josephine M. Kaawa and the Rev. Elizabeth K. Mahaulu; sister Victoria Clark; 15 grandchildren; 40 great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild. Service: 1 p.m. Wednesday at Oahu Cemetery Chapel, 2162 Nuuanu Ave. Call after 10 a.m. Burial: National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl. Casual attire.
Source; The Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Friday August 9, 1996
Her early days are a mystery to my ‘Ohana it was purposefully hidden because of an unknown reason. Nevertheless she nurtured my siblings and I in the old way. When we were born she was there by our mother’s side. After feedings she swaddled us and took care of us until our next feeding. She washed all our cloth diapers, hung them up to dry, sang us to sleep, and spoke to us in Hawaiian. For the first three+ months our mother didn’t have to lift a finger.
La’au Lapa’au
She knew the healing art of plants and the seasons to gather from the uplands. Foraging for food from the lush vegetation or harvesting from the sea. We’re not sure how she learned her skills and I hope to find out.
What we do know is that her past was too painful to speak of, as was the life of many indigenous women across the globe. Hidden away, raised by pseudo grandparents and then delivered into the hands of a heartless aunt.
She never experienced love and for a brief moment her first marriage had love, to only loose him and then outlive two other husbands.
Picture by Nalani Bernado (My Anake) of Hilo, Hawaii
Vivacious
Magnetic
Innovative
Believer
Creative
Faith-filled
Destined
“Many of our ancestors left clues for us to succeed. They planted the seeds of their truth in hopes that we would nourish it and reap its fruits.”
Self Care
When I was in elementary and attending Nanakuli Elementary my Kupuna was in the ‘Ohana home. We had four generations living under one roof.
Every morning she would wake up and do her morning stretches. Slow and steady, each move was intentional. Sometimes I would stretch with her, I miss those days.
For a woman who never had a mother to raise and teach her she somehow developed a beautiful self care routine.
Comment Below: What is the first thing you do in the morning?
Self Worth
My Kupuna didn’t allow the opinions of others to define her. And as often as she was shamed, oppressed, and belittled you couldn’t see a trace of it on her face.
She was unwilling to compromise and held a promise in her heart. That promise was,
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. -Psalms 139:14
Her mindset was simple, I am valuable because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Self Awareness
When she entered a room she was very aware of her surroundings, an acute sense she developed. Loneliness is a strange teacher. Although we crave for interaction, isolation has a way of heightening our senses.
Over time my Kupuna taught herself to read and the pages of the Bible kept her company. The promise of salvation was the lullaby of a warm embrace, meanwhile the staunch examples trained her mind to be steadfast.
Her birth wasn't an accident, she had purpose.
Self Confidence
Being broken down through economic circumstances, educational limitations, raped by an uncle as a teen, birthing a son, loss of a husband, than two more, being a woman, being a single mother, being forced out of your home by your last husband’s child because you don’t want to cause any more friction, homeless and somehow having faith.
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that accuses you in judgement you will condemn. -Isaiah 54:17
She was confident that her redeemer lives and revenge was not a part of her lifestyle. As she got older her faced beamed love. How remarkable.
Self Love
I’m not trying to sound religious because my Kupuna wasn’t. She didn’t believe in human nature or the promises of a man. A preacher is just a human reading the same Bible she had.
Throughout her time here on earth she clung to, “God is Love” and tried to live by it.
If God is love, I must also love. This love should continue to flow out of a body that is loved. Therefore I love myself. - Ho’omālamalama
Her struggles became my strengths and I live by her example. Essentially I hope they become your strengths too as you fall in love with yourself. Be kind, caring, and always forgiving to yourself.
