Lessons in Breath, Life, and Sovereignty from Mauna Kea

Abstract

Mauna Kea taught me how to breathe. Perhaps not in the literal sense, but how to breathe with purpose. It taught me how to use my life for more than just living, but for ensuring that others can grow. It taught me about sovereignty, about what free-dom can look like, feel like, and even taste like. I was born and raised in the shade of our Mauna, but I now live thousands of miles from it, across the ocean in a city built over streams. Every day, therefore, I am presented with a choice: wake up carrying the lessons of the Mauna or wake up denying them. Though I will admit that carrying these lessons and embodying them is not always the easiest choice to make, especially when it calls upon me to be critical of my daily actions or to put myself in spaces of discomfort, I believe it’s the only real option. To choose to deny the lessons learned at, from, and by the Mauna would mean losing the breath, life, and promise of sovereignty I live for, reducing life down to a series of days rather than days lived with meaning.