17 Quotes by Clemence McLaren

Your full name, Kama Ho'omaluhia i ka La'i, means 'child who brings peace.

The day had arrived-the day, hour and minute Kate had been having nightmares about for months. She was about to leave the house she loved in Pasadena, California, for a place she doesn't even like. And she was leaving behind her dog, Boggs.

Kate had thought hula was something for tourists, girls in plastic skirts dancing to will songs about tiny bubbles in the champagne. Mehana's hula was different-a way of telling stories without words, a kimd of body poetry.

You know why the gods made people in different colors?""No, why" Kate asked."Too boring, everybody looking the same. The gods didn't want us to get bored.

So much hate to go around, it's hard not to hate back. Much harder than learning to fight back.

Pretty small island if everybody fighting everybody.

She would move around the kitchen, humming the words and dancing with her hands. The music was moving through her, filling an emptiness she hadn't known was so deep.

The music started up. Mehana called out the verse, and Kate glided into the first kaholo, losing her self in the dance.

In the old days, when Hawaiians wanted to give a gift, they doesn't have Safeway. Or any money. They had to take from nature what the gods gave them. Gather the flowers, make the twine, string the flowers. Lots of time and effort. We do the work just to say, 'I love you.' No meaning when we buy a lei in the supermarket.