Dear Friends: As Resident Friends at the Honolulu Friends Meeting House since July 2012, we have hosted Friends and friends of Friends from other countries, from the Mainland, and from other Hawaiian Islands. When we gather around the breakfast table, the interactions are often very interesting and educational.
Early in our tenure at the as Residents, a wedding party of five sat around our breakfast table. A young woman explained what motivated her to start the Quaker Voluntary Service, and her husband, brother of the groom, related his experiences as principal of a small charter school in Atlanta. The mother of the groom knew a lot about the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan, because her husband ran the center. Later in the day the four young people practiced their music on the lanai for the wedding scheduled for the following day. Other interesting breakfast conversations were with a fallen-away Quaker from New York, who was preparing to do research the Christmas Islands on the effects of nuclear testing. Another guest found joy as a substitute pediatrician in local clinics, while the doctors were on vacation. Then there was a stuntman/actor, who talked about what it was like to play Spiderman and who finally found peace on his surfboard. When the young actor went to New York for a new job, which fell through, the three people he called for support and direction were the new F(f)rends he made around the breakfast table at the Meeting House. There is another guest, who frequently comes from the Big Island, where he provides mediation and healing among the Pacific Island immigrants competing for jobs in Hilo. One morning his friend, an elder in the Sovereignty movement, who had come to talk with state officials about setting up a restorative prison system on the Big Island, joined us for breakfast.
In addition to providing accommodations for guests in three rooms and taking care of Honolulu Friends Meeting House, we look forward each morning to talking with our guests over a cold but abundant breakfast. We may be reached at 1(808) 988 2714 or [email protected]
Bill and Marty Smith, Honolulu Friends Meeting (HI, PYM)