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Hawaiian is a beautiful language. And sadly one that is dying. When I was going to school there I had an awesome teacher who was native Hawaiian and taught us all sorts of things about life. He also taught us a little bit about the language. (and he's the reason I play the ukulele now, and why my uke is named Uncle Bill- after my sweet teacher)

So in Hawaiian the sound "ha" in each word means "the spirit of" or "the breath" of
So for example, some well known words:

Aloha- the spirit of love
Ohana- the spirit of family
Mahalo- the spirit of thankfulness

The reason I love this is because for these words and others it means that there is a spirit to it- not like the spirit from a pep rally but breath. It's living.Your love is alive, your family is alive and your thankfulness has a breath of it's own too. How poetic is that? I eat this stuff up.

My teacher, Uncle Bill, who has sadly passed on, was the instructor over the Malama Kai class- or the care and keeping of the sea. It ended up being all about this epic "canoe" that we got to be on all the time. Really it was a large native ship with hulls and sails and planks but you were not allowed to call it "a boat." It was a canoe. And it's name was the Iosepa. (named after Joseph Smith actually. Only seven of these canoes left in the world and they name it after him. There was a lot of symbolism. Wanna know more, ask me. :) )

Uncle Bill told us that if we were ever in a bad mood or angry that we were not to come to class that day, that the canoe would feel and absorb our bad attitudes and that it did not deserve that. I even dated a Hawaiian boy who was a worker on the canoe that summer (I know, right?) and he told me how he would go to the canoe alone sometimes and talk to it and feel it's spirit. Maybe that sounds crazy to some people but I loved it. I loved how much they cared for and reverenced the special things in their lives and culture.

And this is all surprisingly to tell you about something not Hawaiian at all.

This is a story of Our house.
In Utah.

Because the word for "house" is Hale. See that "ha" in there? So the house has a spirit, has a breath.

We have a small house and it has it's problems. But we love it.
I feel like it's apart of our little family.
When we were looking for homes we saw a lot. But the second we walked into this one we felt like we were home. It was crazy. I'm not sure it will be that way with any other house we buy but this one was waiting for us. It feels like it was molded around us. Like a well worn mattress- it fits us perfectly. We feel safe here, (despite that fellow who tried to get in...) I feel like it's been happy with us, that it's watched me cry and stilled the air. I feel like it DOES absorb our bad moods and that it makes a heavy day feel a little lighter.

And who knows how long we'll even be here. We got it as our "starter home," knew we'd be here at least a few years with Buck in school and all. But who knows, the world is insane and maybe we'll be here much longer.

Which would be okay with us.

Every morning and every night I have a routine to "put the house to sleep" and then "to wake it up." (Not like I'm doing a chant or something, I just mean closing the blinds, windows, cleaning up anything needed- you know.)

It will be sad to say good bye one day, but I feel like we probably will have to at some point. We've I've been throwing out ideas about study abroad and any other such piratical adventures but we both agree that we would want to just rent out our house. To someone we would know who would treat it well. It's scary to think about some idiots coming to live here and letting our home go downhill. You know?

"Aloha" is also used to say "hello" and "good bye." I think that makes it some eternal sort of word. I mean  it means love, hello, and good bye- does that not somehow make it go on forever?

I know that the things we acquire on this earth wont be much when we are gone, but I believe that we still take them with us. Because they are apart of us.

And to be perfectly honest- this post is becoming A LOT more profound and cheesy than I originally planned. So I'm going to stop it without a witty ending. ALL I really wanted to say was that I am grateful for our home and I feel it is apart of the family.

That, and I think we should just move this house over to Hawaii with us someday.