2024 summer was special for many reasons. One was our maiden visit to Hawaii for holiday as a family. We spent a week at Oahu island – very much around the Waikiki epi centre for tourists, but also exploring around the island on car with stops along the North Shore and then further on windward side (which is less touristy).

Everywhere you go, you are greeted with Aloha. You hear the word, and the handwave that goes with it 🤙, which looks like the call me sign (couldn’t find the right emoji) but when turned 90 degrees up, it is a Hawaiian hello handwave!

As you engage in Aloha greeting tradition – one inevitably wonders, what does it mean? What’s the spirit of Aloha?

In one of our evening walks, my 5 year old son and I stumbled on a description of Aloha on Waikiki promenade sidewalk (see below pic). When I read it – it certainly helped, and what jumped out is how it is much more than a greeting (like Mahalo, which is a clear expression of gratitude / thank you equivalent). Aloha is is certainly wide in meaning, encompassing multiple feelings and emotions, almost signifying a way of life, which is altogether uplifting – as the description on the plaque below suggests.

That being the meaning – I was still searching for a more linear articulation. To put into words the spirit of Aloha. And the desire to seek out the spirit comes from the fact that one certainly does feel a subliminal vibe in Hawaii – and my outsider status as a keen tourist perhaps made me more aware of it. The question is not dissimilar to questions that keen tourists have where ever they travel. What does it mean to be French? How much of ancient Greek zeitgeist might still be alive in modern Greece?

One fine morning – sipping coffee at a Dean & Deluca café (a US mainland import, but hosting adequate mix of Hawaiian flavours such as Kona coffee grown on the island, tropical jams and other bits), I impulsively penned down my first reflection of the spirit of Hawaii (Aloha) >>

The answer I think is ‘blowing in the wind’. It’s in the ever present, ever pleasant gently warm breeze – giving the island, its palm trees and its people a uniquely Hawaiian sway but not any swagger. That Sway is Aloha.

The conditions for sway may not be unique to Hawaii but the island certainly embodies it.

• The sway of waves embraced in surfing.
• The sway of trees captured in the sinuous Polynesian dance forms
• The sway of slanting showers that fall gently upon you
• The sway visible in wide smiles of folks you encounter, the strides of youthful belles, and pretty much everywhere!

But the vibe cannot always be sun and good times. The looming tropical storms or the angry volcanic ruptures are part of the islands’ orchestra – each taken in stride, where preparedness is twined with acceptance. That acceptance is sway.

Well done Hawaii! Much like the volcanic mountains that embrace you, in embracing nature back you have given birth to the Hawaiian spirit. ALOHA!

Does that resonate? Tell me what you think?