myth for ko'oloa'ula

When gods speak their words become living things. At that time there were many many words for all different kinds of things. The many words for love became things like deer and lichen and various trees with toothy leaves, and bright flowers. But there was one goddess who brought us the jawbone, including the way that the jawbone loves the food the mouth eats. Her words created whirlpools and the redness of plants and sea creatures. She lived on an island in the big ocean, with massive leaves and insects with wings as big as stained glass windows. This goddess said a lot of words as was her desire. And she had a little knife. With this knife to widdle the words down until they were how she imagined what that living thing meant to be.

One morning the goddess woke to find that her precious knife was missing. She did not know what to do, and she was afraid to speak for fear that her words would come out ugly, and not at all how she wanted. So she silently left her island and went looking for it. She could not speak so she could not ask for it, but she watched carefully the behavior of all the things around her. The rains could not do with the knife, they traveled light, and they had lightning, the lake had so many to take care of they grew creatures right out of their skin. It could not be the ocean, they were so massive they did not need a little knife, even one that belonged to a goddess. So the goddess went to the marsh and thought, and as she thought, the marsh said to her.

“You know your breath smells kind of bad. Go to the dry side of the island, I think I know someone who can help you.”

So she went to the dry side where she found a tiny white flower who gave her some of itself. As the goddess thanked the flower, she realized that her words were floating out like bubbles on a cool breeze, and she saw that the little ko’oloa’ula plant was telling her that she needed no knife, that she just needed to care for her mouth, the place from which they came. And the goddess turned the flower red and shimmering, so that she could always be reminded the value of caring for herself.

And the knife, the rivers enjoyed the knife because it would carve through stone and dirt, and sometimes even old trees.