What Aloha Means to Us

Aloha. At its simplest meaning, it is how you say hello and goodbye when you are in Hawaii. In Hawaii aloha is everywhere. Aloha is living in harmony with others and your environment. It’s living with compassion and kindness. It’s cultivating connections, treating everyone as family.

You’ll find if you look online that there are all manner of aloha items--from coloring books to learn about aloha to using aloha to be a better manager. What Lori and I haven’t found is a guide to bringing aloha into your mainland lifestyle.

We are not going to put a single definition around what aloha is--that is up to you to define. We will, however, give you some ideas on how to reframe how you think about your day-to-day life. Why do we only allow ourselves one or two weeks of the year to feel our best and most carefree? Isn’t our dream to be on vacation all the time? We can’t teach you how to get rich, but we can show you how to enrich your everyday life.

We know it isn’t easy to step back and take a breath most days. We live in Silicon Valley--the antithesis of the aloha lifestyle. We work. We commute. We have kids. We have a million stresses coming at us every day. Trying to schedule time to meet with friends is like planning a major event. Spontaneity seems to be a lost art.  It’s not unusual for people to be booked out a month in advance, if not two.

Yet, the times when we’ve been able to schedule that impromptu barbeque and just hang out with the ohana is almost always a highlight. At the center of all this is that we as humans look for connection. When you look at the longevity studies, those who remain connected in some fashion to others live longer. Just look at Lori’s 96 year old grandma and how she remains central to the family.

At the end of the day friends and family aren’t going to remember where you lived, what you drove or how many hours you worked. What they will cherish is the time spent together, the memories made, and the smiles on your face.

Come live aloha with us every day. We promise in the coming months we will be bringing new ways for you to feel the aloha vibes at home. Meanwhile, spend time with our ohana and learn how you can make the world a bit more aloha.