Earth Day is Mālama the People Day too

I was part of a group think-tank not too long ago concerned with ecological community volunteerism by businesses. I was asked to participate because Sense of Place —driven community initiatives is a part of my ‘Ohana in Business model within MWA, and a part I have been quite vocal about locally. As a small snippet, this is part of what you will read on my company website:

We believe that all businesses have a responsibility to community: They must understand their sense of place.

Therefore we promote culturally-sensitive work process and practice, and we teach, coach, and operate Say Leadership Coaching by managing with Aloha, the hallmark of our own culture. We feel it is our responsibility to bring a Hawaiian awareness and sensibility to all we do, for we conduct our business within the communities of Hawaii, and day-by-day we work and live in her ‘Ohana.

Within our discussions, one of the kūpuna (Hawaiian elders) said something that has stuck with me ever since, and this being Earth Day I found it was one of the first things I thought about when I woke this morning. I am paraphrasing her, but as I best recall it she said,

“I am grateful for the attention that global warming concerns have brought to the care of the ‘āina, however often we lose sight of the fact that the planet is a rock; what of the Mālama we must give to the citizens whom Akua intended the earth to be home to?”

An ecosystem is defined as “a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment.” The interaction part has got to be there.

The person who said this had been invited to the group as both elder and geologist; I think her profound realization that even her own life’s work, as one devoted to the scientific study of the origin, history, and structure of the earth, was a means to another end was what made such an impact on me. The underlying “Why be so concerned?” of our efforts to preserve our planet is so that we can still live on it.

But live on it how? And as what kind of civilization? What will community and ‘civility’ continue to mean to us? Are we focused enough on the human elements of our community ecosystems?

When I think of our value study of Mālama this month, these are the thoughts which are speaking to my sense of Kuleana, responsibility. Yes, I do think of consumerism quite a bit too, and of how I can curtail my own appetites as another hungry consumer who must give back more than she consumes. However I also remind myself that being more modest in my wants and needs is just a start, for there is cause and effect, give and take, in virtually every issue we face, and in every action we take.

This is a good day to go back to the definition of Mālama we started our month with. From Mellow Maintenance Mālama:

Mālama To take care of. To serve and to honor, to protect and care for. ~ To Mālama, is to take care of. ~ A manager is a steward of assets and caretaker of people. ~ Mālama calls upon us to serve, to honor and to protect. ~ Acts of caring drive us to high performance levels in our work with others. We give and become unselfish. We accept responsibility unconditionally. ~ Mālama is warm, and Mālama is personal. It comes from heart, and it comes from soul. ~ When we Mālama, we are better.

From this value of Mālama comes the word mālamalama. In their Hawaiian Dictionary, Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert define mālamalama as the “light of knowledge, clarity of thinking or explanation, enlightenment” where those things you consider will wonderfully become “shining, radiant (and) clear.” Your path is an enlightened one for you when along the way you are taking care of certain things. You serve them, protect them, and honor them, and in doing so you feel better. You become better.

Mālama is almost magical in this way. In taking care of what you are truly supposed to —for it is “shining, radiant (and) clear,” everything else seems to get taken care of too.

Readings from the archives:

• The Environment and Managing with Aloha
  “What say we try to figure out what the environment has to do with our main themes of aloha, values, work, business, management, and leadership?”
• Sunday Mālama: Please don’t shop for me!
  “I have discovered that I want to achieve ma‘alahi most by getting rid of a lot of stuff, the kind of stuff that we think of as material clutter. I am positive that a good part of any stress I may have, has to do with a great array of my clutter, and it has begun to feel like I can’t shed it fast enough.”
• Sense of Place on the Internet: A Brand New Community Ecosystem
  “Physical place has this huge advantage; it surrounds you —you are enveloped IN it. On the other hand, we leave our virtual places so easily, simply switching off our connectivity and walking away. When there are other people in our physical places they cannot be ignored or lightly dismissed.”

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If you have arrived at MWAC for the first time, ALOHA and welcome!

This is what MWAC is About, and Mālama is our value study of the month for April.

You are warmly invited and encouraged to subscribe and become part of our Ho‘ohana Community.

Ho‘ohana with us!
~ Rosa Say
More about me here.