Alicia Tapia

“I think about how Nāwahī, the editor of Ke Aloha Aina, defined aloha 'āina as a constant magnetic pull toward's one place that cannot be weakened or dettered. I think about Puna, being pulled, pulled, pulled home, always and every day.”
― Jamaica Osorio

“This part of the mo'olelo is often overlooked, but it reminds us that aloha is an active verb; it is tactile. Aloha plants seeds, grows, and transforms the 'āina around us. Aloha is distinct because it cannot be commodified and therefore cannot be bought or sold. Aloha creates-- in fact, aloha is always creating. Pele uses lava. Her aloha is both rage and rapture, destruction and creation. For Hi'iaka, aloha can be reforestation. I have learned from this mo'olelo that if it does not transform us, it is not aloha. Further, if it is not marked on the 'āina, it is not aloha, or at least, it is not the aloha our kupuna were raised with, cultivated, and carefully passed down in our mo'olelo to us.”
― Jamaica Osorio

“I saw the surface of her, merely the outer shell, and realized that she was mere surface all the way to her core.”
― Percival Everett, James

“Our new teachers do not offer the young a ready-made philosophy, but rather the opportunity and means to create one. This, of course, is a teacher's true mission.”
― Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings