JUST SAY MAHALO®

Category: my stories

  • Bon Dancin’ as Buddhist Practice: Come as You Are

    Shin Buddhists don’t believe Obon is when the “souls” of ancestors return, nor that memorial services, offering of lights, or other rituals benefit dead relatives. Obon is a time for us, who are living this unrepeatable life, to pause and reflect, to remember and honor those who have passed on before us, to appreciate all…

  • The Things We Keep #49: Dad’s Boy Scout Shirt

    Cleaning out the Kiyohara family home, I discovered my father’s Boy Scout uniform shirt carefully packed away in a dusty trunk, in the very back of the garage. Normally, I’d smile as I always do when given the chance to reconnect with Dad but this time was different. Having sworn the Boy Scout oath to…

  • Chapter 17: In which we discover priceless treasures 

    Why would cousin Darin Daz Yamaga and I spend a week moving mountains of dusty, dirty, and endless junk? To rescue priceless memories, reminders that where we come from forever defines who we are. Holding grandma Kiyohara’s naturalization certificate, made me pause. After emigrating to America, working as truck farmers, then being imprisoned in a “relocation camp”…

  • The Things We Keep #17: The Red Wagon

    Cleaning up grandpa and grandma Kiyohara’s house of 100 years, I discovered our uncle had kept the Radio Flyer Red Wagon that dates back at least 60 years. All of the cousins played with The Red Wagon, imagining dashing adventures and daring acts of courage, and our now 88 year old uncle clearly could not…

  • Pigeon Pidgin

  • The Granddaughter Dialogues Chapter 1: In Which the Journey Begins

    Melody:    I’m ready, Grandpa! Grandpa: Hey, you have your boots on backwards! Melody:   No, you need your glasses, Grandpa! Grandpa: Oh, okay! Melody:   Let’s go! And so Grandpa and Melody embarked upon a grand adventure into the Pure Land Forest, with Melody’s left shoe on her right foot, and her right shoe…

  • Life Comes Full Circle: ad infinitum

    As our son Akira Kendall marks his 28th birthday, I realize: (1) our son is a man, a loving husband, a great father. Our time as parents is complete. (2) our granddaughter is no longer a baby who needs me to change her diapers. How fast babies grow up! (3) Life is indeed impermanent but…

  • Wedding Anniversary #30

    Dear Mimy, Before we were married 30 years ago, had a son 28 years ago, and were blessed with a lovely daughter-in-law five years ago and a precious granddaughter three years ago, there was just the two of us and the love we shared. You have given me everything I ever wanted, helped me achieve my…

  • Kids Grow Up So Fast #24

    Me:           Hey, Melody, what are you doing with grandpa’s iPad? Melody:  I changed password! Me:           Oh. Okay.

  • Life Comes Full Circle #11

    My mom, Ruby Kiyohara, kept a file of my Dharma School projects … and yesterday granddaughter Melody made her first Dharma School project, an origami Daruma. Some day, years from now, Melody will find this stuff in a box on a dusty shelf somewhere, and wonder just what the heck Grandpa was thinking. And then she’ll…