Preface: This is the complete text of my Ho‘ohana ‘ÅŒlelo newsletter being distributed today. It isn’t always conducive to being duplicated as a blog post, but this month’s issue proved to be an exception.
If you would like to subscribe to Ho‘ohana ‘ÅŒlelo on an on-going basis, please do! At minimum it will arrive in your email inbox on the 1st weekday of every month, presenting my Hawaiian value of the month and other updates. On occasion I will send special issues mid-month (the exception versus rule). To subscribe, enter your email address here:
Aloha mai kākou,
Counting today, just 31 days remain in 2008. Many will be
saying "good riddance" to what has become a very tough year. But I find the
mood in our Ho'ohana Community is slightly different; it is the "chalk this one
up to lessons learned" mood of lifelong learners who have become life's inventors.
Sure, we are eager to say goodbye to a few things gladly
left behind us, but we see them as old burdens which no longer weigh us down
unnecessarily. When the game changes, we can become different players with new
strategies; armed with our ideas, we can get playful again. December has
arrived with this community-evolved battle cry of "Bring on the New!" and we
are readying ourselves for a spirited challenge.
November has been a month where our study of Ho'omau (the
value of perseverance) helped us with that a great deal; we are emerging with a
positive expectancy of the year to come no matter how tough it has been (or
still is). Your emails and comments for my blog posts are illustrating your will-not-be-denied spirit for me on a daily basis. My Aloha conspirators, I am so proud of you!
Here is what will happen for our Ho'ohana Community in
December. I hope it will be a comforting pattern you feel keeps your HCer's
Sense of Place steady, strong and sure as we move from one year into the
promise of another, yet one which helps you get that 2009 game face on!
1. Nānā i ke kumu, we look to our source.
In keeping with my "family, faith and health first" December tradition, Say Leadership Coaching will be on hiatus from December 13th through January 11th, and reopen for the business on Monday, January 12th.
I will start my hiatus in an ambitious way! I am running the half-route of the Honolulu Marathon on December 14th: Let me know if you will be there too!
2. Ho'ohana, we intentionally work.
As for Ho'ohana Publishing, we Ho'omau with another December tradition, 4 years old as of today: Our monthly value study on MWAC will cover My Aloha Virtue List:
MWAC Day One Essay: In Keeping with our December Tradition: Twelve Aloha Virtues
Another important note on this: As of today, my publishing schedule on MWAC will shift to every Monday. It was previously each Tuesday, and I know that our new management and leadership laboratory on Say "Alaka'i" has made Tuesdays much too intensive, with too much reading to keep up with.
3. Alaka'i, we lead with our Ho'ohana initiatives.
The newbie in my attentions with Writing with Aloha intentions, Say "Alaka'i" will continue to be published at The Honolulu Advertiser each Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Keep in mind that whatever appears there on Sunday is up to you: I write it based on your feedback the previous week, whether in the form of blog and email comments and questions. As a for-instance, take a look at yesterday's article: What's in the Aloha name? What's in your name?
4. 'Ike loa, we learn so we grow.
I am quite excited about the month to come in our learning forum, Joyful Jubilant Learning, where that community-evolved battle cry of "Bring on the New!" will be our theme for the month of December. In particular, our objective there this month will be learning to newly define 'Success' for ourselves given the state of our world at our 2009 doorstep. If you are ready to seize your own new invention of success I urge you to collaborate with us there too.
JJL Day One Essay: Bring on the New~ Success. Yours and Ours
5. Kākou, we communicate well, and value our Language of We.
A reminder that since the debut of Say "Alaka'i" mid-November, Talking Story has replaced my Tumblr, Ho'ohana Aloha, as our Ho'ohana Community Center and my personal blog. If you would like just one email subscription versus individual feeds for each of everything else I have listed (plus more, such as links to Flickr photos and Twitter finds), this one for Talking Story is the one to get.
Meet the rest of your Ho'ohana Community every day: Talk Story with us.
So hopefully, I will continue to see more of you at Talking Story? Bookmark the site if you are streamlining your email, and check in occasionally as we countdown the days to Christmas, inspired by our Aloha Virtues and community collaboration and camaraderie.
I wish you the merriest Christmas ever, one that you might not yet be imagining in your wildest of dreams right now, for I know it is possible. Aloha tells me so, and I Aloha is one value I have gotten really good at listening to.
Mele Kalikimaka!
We Ho'ohana together, Kākou.
~ Rosa