“Jeannie, I don’t know how you do it. You never seem stressed or have a bad day,” lamented Allia Kerchosky, her office mate.
“That’s funny. You should have seen me before I went into the Navy. I was a basket case,” Jeannie replied.
“Did the Navy help you become so calm? I would have thought the opposite.”
“It wasn’t the Navy exactly, but when I was in Hawaii, I learned how to live pono.”
“What in the world is pono?”
“It’s a process where you develop respectful relationships with everyone in your life. In addition, you become a custodian of all the resources provided to you. I try to leave everything I touch in better shape than when I found them.”
The above conversation may have a New Age feel to it, but the concept is very simple. What living pono means is that you work to respect others and resources available to you. Where things are weighing on your mind, you work to cleanse your mind of what is bothering you.
Living pono may require external guidance to work through the issues that you and others have. But the real value of living pono is to lead a life where your respect for others leads to a respect for yourself. Issues are prevented from occurring as result of the mutual respect.
When issues are present and seemingly intractable, living pono follows a process called Ho’oponopono. Basically, this is a facilitation process which emphasizes prayer, confession, repentance, and forgiveness. Individuals are asked to recognize what they have done and the effect it has on others. “Right fighting” is discouraged. If someone is living pono, there should be an infrequent need for the Ho’oponopono process.
Imagine how our society would work if living pono became the norm. Can you visualize the legislative process that might result? What about negotiations? Maybe this is too idealistic. But living pono is something that all of us can try to achieve.
* * *
“If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past. Do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.” -Roy Bennett (Author)