He Leo Mahalo kēia: This Is A Voice of Gratitude

Welina mai me ke aloha e nā ʻohana, nā hoapili, a me nā hoalauna mai ka pae ʻāina ʻo Hawaiʻi a i ka ʻae kai ʻo Nū ʻIeleke, a me nā wahi āpau, mai ʻō ā ʻō. ʻO Kepa Barrett koʻu inoa. ʻIwakālua oʻu makahiki a ʻo Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina kuʻu kulāiwi. Mahalo no ke kipa ʻana a me ka heluhelu ʻana aku i koʻu palapala mua ma kēia kahua kākau o ka pūnaewele, ʻoia hoʻi ʻo "Kepa Aloha."

Greetings with love to my family, friends, and acquaintances from the Islands of Hawaiʻi to the shores of New Jersey and everywhere beyond. My name is Kepa Barrett. I am 20 years old and the Hawaiian Islands are my homeland. Thank you for coming to read the first post on my new blog: Kepa Aloha.

Kepa's favorite S's: Sun, Surf, and Smiles! :D

The idea for this blog arose prematurely after my sister, Pilialoha Nathaniel, started writing her blog Happy Nathaniel (which you should all check out! http://happynathaniel.blogspot.com/). But this blog didn't come into full fruition until a loved one suggested that I start writing down stories that I normally tell in person on a public site for others to see. For those of you who know me, I prefer to speak to people face-to-face because there is so much more animation and excitement to experience in conversations where you can see peoples faces! It also has something to do with Aloha...but we'll talk about that another time ;)

You folks also know that I talk story CHOKE (a lot), and I can go on ranting foa days braddah! However, I tend to speak from my naʻau (soul/gut); therefore many of the stories I tell tend to have a lesson that I try to capture in the spoken word, but often these lessons are too abstract and mamao (far-out) for me to retain by sheer memory. That's why I often lose these spoken lessons because I didn't anchor them to anything tangible for me to recall later.

So Kepa Aloha is going to be a permanent pōhaku (rock) for which the memories, travels, and "mana moments" of Kepa Barrett will be stored. I hope this blog will offer you, dear reader, the inspiration you need to anchor your own memories, stories, and life lessons to something tangible. Otherwise, I hope you get something else out of my lōlō (crazy) rants.

Speaking of permanent pōhaku in my life: These are my kupuna (grandparents)!

For my family and friends who are confused by the first paragraph in this post - it is written entirely in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian Language), and the second paragraph is a (rough) translation into English. I did this because I consider ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi to be my first language, and I want to use this blog as a way for me to recall Hawaiian and use it in a written form. I haven't taken a Hawaiian language class since my senior year in high school nearly two years ago, so my kākau (written) form of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi has gotten a little outta wack. So, I will dedicate a portion of each of my blog posts to kākau Hawaiʻi in hopes of maintaining my ties to my mother language.

Now...on to the very first topic EVER to be shared on Kepa Aloha: GRATITUDE. Specifically, I want to encourage people to start VOICING their gratitude more often to themselves and to others, because it will truly make you feel better about the good things you got going for yourself!

I love my maddah-braddah-sistah-faddah SUPAH plenny!

I want to provide a VOICE of gratitude to my readers, because the words that I am about to write are things that I have said out-loud many times, but I didn't actually start writing them down until about a year ago in a personal journal that I carry around. And just so that I remembered, I recorded the dates that I wrote these thoughts down.  Many of these manaʻo mahalo (thoughts of gratitude) were written in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, so I provided a translation for them whenever necessary. I only provided SOME of these manaʻo mahalo for you folks today. The rest I will share when I feel the time is right...

Nā Manaʻo Mahalo - Thoughts of Gratitude

1) I am grateful for my ʻohana! - April 17, 2014
2) Hoʻomaikaʻi au no koʻu hoa aloha! (I am grateful for my friends!) - April 18, 2014
3) Aloha wau iā Grandma (I love Grandma) - April 19, 2014
4) I am grateful for the SUN - April 20, 2014
5) Hoʻomaikaʻi au no ka hanu ola. Mahalo Ke Akua!
(This one I won't translate cuz I no gotta if I no like!)

Anyways, I'll leave you folks with this cool video of me surfing with my dad and sister last week. Thanks for reading through my first moʻolelo on Kepa Aloha! See you next time!

P.S. More ʻohana pics:

Barrett Cousins - No mess!

Nathaniel Cousins - How come da camera always like follow us around?