Manifest

Have you seen them? Have you seen the signs? Swirling, driving, building, the signs are springing forth in all corners of these islands. They are bubbling up once more to reveal the truth that we all know: the swirling, driving, and building up are telling us something, something deep and something old, and something evident everywhere we look.

Swirling around the checkout lines of enormous, bulk-rate, huge-box supermarkets, we are corralled directly into the path of the oncoming impulse to stock up on what we might need. Driving to the gas pump, we move and jostle our cars through tight lanes and spaces to be sure they are fed their necessary fuel. And with the flurry of screen captures of the anticipated storm path, the sharing of information, the regular interruptions in radio and television broadcasts, the anticipation and the anxiety are building up in us once more. The time is coming. The manifestation of Lono approaches once more.

Lono, the god of good crops and rainfall, is described in the ancient writings of the Hawaiian faith in the phrase, “Akua po’o huna i ke ao lewa.” This means “the god whose head is hidden in the dark clouds.” Lono’s presence is associated with weather events that are visible. Swirling winds, waterspouts, dark clouds, thunder, and partial rainbows are the ways we can experience and see the presence of Lono in our lives. But Lono is known for something else. Lono presides over the time of Makahiki, the time of peace on these islands when crops are gathered and warring ceases for a time.

Lono is not the only god in the pantheon of history’s divine manifestations to be associated both with violent natural phenomenon and with peace among humans. Yahweh, one of the names of the ancient Hebrew people for their deity, is regularly associated with storms and clouds in the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as with peace among people. In fact this kind of manifestation of the divine is so prevalent, and crosses enough boundaries of time, distance, and culture, that it makes me wonder as much about what might be swirling in the human brain as what might be swirling in the atmosphere.

There are many teachings about increasing our peace of mind that remind us we are ultimately powerless. We are ultimately powerless over other people. We are powerless over the outcomes of things happening in the news around us. But the powerlessness we feel in the face of gargantuan displays of nature’s power is special. At least for me, the swirl of stocking up, the drive of fueling up, and the build toward this shared experience reminds me that we are in this together—not only in this storm together, but in this life together. For there is nothing more human than heeding signs that remind us that we are not a god. And at least as far as Lono is concerned, we are reminded of precisely whose po’o huna i ke ao lewa. I’ll give us a hint…it’s not our po’o.

Many prayers of safety and care in these coming days.

Rev. T. J.
minister@unitariansofhi.org