Normally I would sit here and give a play-by-play on how things went today at the celebration of my grandmother's life (Funeral is SUCH an ugly word). Yet I can't, because there is nothing bitter, neither horrible to give you. In fact, there is not much that I can say that would be something that would be less than incredible.

Believe it or not, I actually harbor absolutely zero ill feelings for any one of those people with whom I shared a grandma with. In fact, it was a very pleasant experience that I am glad to say that I am sad is over with. Though it was a sad event that we commemorated today, what amazed me was the idea that all us grandkids were there for the same purpose and there was no dry eye in the house.

We are all different. It is because of these differences, I realized, that we are family. We know exactly what pisses each of us off, what each of us loves, and most of all, we know that at the bottom of everything, just as before, even as we live and lead separate lives, we are, indeed, one group. A group of people who have the same memories, the same hurts and heart aches, the same history, and it is this factor that allows me the luxury of saying to them that even though they are who they are, and I am who I am, this is simply the way that it is, and I love you each because of it.

Aloha no wau 'ia 'oe, Nana...you were there, once again, in spirit, making us behave like the good kids you always said we were...

MAPU