This philosophy is in the end about dwelling a lifetime of stability. As people, we are likely to sway forwards and backwards on the pendulum of life, and pono is about making strikes to course-correct when issues sway to the darkish aspect an excessive amount of. It’s each an consciousness of how issues are entering into your life, and an intention to deal with issues earlier than they snowball into a bigger problem. In that approach, pono is definitely a verb, one which’s all about performing and reacting to particular conditions every day to be able to in the end keep as grounded and even-keeled as potential. As Uncle Clifford Nae‘ole, a Maui-based cultural practitioner we interviewed and featured in the book, explains: “The virtue of pono is to practice every day, especially when things are going south.”
Of course, it can be difficult to tell when, exactly, you need to act. But Hawaiians believe that deep down, you always know, because you’ll really feel it; the indicators can be there for those who let your self hear them. “We consider that if you’re pono ‘ole—if you are without pono—it throws you so off balance that things can go awry internally, physically, and mentally,” Uncle Clifford continues. “You may feel like there is something growing inside you, growing bigger every day, and it may burst.”
Part of living a pono life, then, is knowing that it’s your accountability as a member of your loved ones and society at giant to deal with these points after they do come up. It just isn’t pono to let issues slip underneath the rug when you understand, deep down, that there’s a problem that may resurface at a later level.