Shaka to Me in 2025!

 

Hand Gesture Makes Friends Everywhere

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

There’s an easy way to share friendship and make friends in the new year. Just shaka it to them! Giving the popular hand gesture with the extended pinky and thumb.

 

The shaka sign, which originated in Hawaii, is so widely seen in the islands that on June 24th the state took legislative action to designate it as the official state gesture, a welcoming sign of friendship and aloha. 

Commonly used among surfers, the shaka is a friendly gesture that can mean anything from "Hello" to "Hang loose!" Or "Epic wave, dude!" It can also mean "Have a good day," "Sorry, my bad" or "Don't sweat it." The messages are virtually endless with this universal gesture of goodwill. 

 

Sponsors of the Hawaii state legislation making the shaka sign official say Hawaii is "lucky to have a visual sign for sharing aloha with each other."

 

It's a sign that has travelled far beyond Hawaii's shores, transmitting good vibes around the world wherever it goes. You can flash it palm out or in; hold it flat or shake it about. Just like riding a wave, the style is up to you. 

As for how shaka started, one story goes that it started in the early 1900s on Oahu's North Shore when a train guard named Hamana Kalili, who lost three fingers in a sugar mill accident, used to wave to passengers boarding the train. Local kids, trying to jump on the train, began mimicking his gesture - with thumb and pinky out - to let other kids know it was safe to jump on.  

 

Over time, the gesture spread throughout the islands and took on many meanings. No one knows for sure why it's called the "shaka," but many think it's related to Shaka, the Japanese historical figure associated with Buddha and enlightenment.

Whatever the name means, one thing is certain: the shaka is bound to put a smile on your face.  

 SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.

A Sea of Gifts Waiting for You!

 

Celebrating Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gifts

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

During the holidays when much of the focus is on gifts – what to give and what we’re hoping to receive – the best gifts of all may not be in stores, but waiting for us to discover on the beach.

“The beach is not the place to work, to read, to write or think,” begins Anne Morrow Lindbergh in her much-loved book, written in 1955 – Gift from the Sea.

“Rollers on the beach, wind in the pines…One falls under their spell, relaxes, stretches out prone. One becomes, in fact, like the element on which one lies, flattened by the sea, bare, open, empty as the beach, erased by the tides of all yesterday’s scribbling.”

With “patience,” Lindbergh writes, one will come to experience the “gifts from the sea.” Whether it’s a rare shell or a perfectly-rounded stone, a strong emotion or a new sense of awareness, the gifts will come.

Lindbergh, the wife of famed American aviator Charles Lindbergh, found solace by the sea and shared her musings in her books.  

In keeping with this, SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel wish you a Christmas stocking filled with your own gifts from the sea:

Simplicity.  Studying a sea shell found on a walk, Lindbergh observes how simple it is. “One learns first of all in beach living the art of shedding, how little one can get along with, not how much.”

Solitude. “It is a difficult lesson to learn today…to practice the art of solitude,” writes Lindbergh. Yet, alone on the beach, she “watched the gulls…dip and wheel and dive for the scraps I threw them.” And, felt a kinship. “The beauty of earth and sea and air meant more to me. I was in harmony with it, melted into the universe.”

Friendship. Lindbergh savors the gifts of friendship exchanged on the beach, openly and freely. “The pure relationship, how beautiful it is!” she notes. “Strangers smile at you on the beach, come up and offer you a shell. Nothing is demanded of you in payment, no social rite expected.”  

Home. Gazing at the oyster beds, Lindbergh recognizes the importance of home and of “forming ties, roots, a firm base.” She sees each oyster “has its place on the rock to which it has fitted itself perfectly and to which it clings tenaciously.”

Balance. Lindbergh’s closeness to the sea with the ebb and flow of the tides gives her a “balance of physical, intellectual, and spiritual life. Work without pressure. Space for significance and beauty. Time for solitude and sharing.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s love of the sea and her patient explorations of the beach environment enabled her to experience and share its gifts.

At this holiday season SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti wish you these “gifts from the sea”… and more.

Beach salvage mini-sculpture by OC artist Marty Naftel

Happy Holidays!

Patti and Sunny

SurfWriter Girls

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.

SurfWriter Girls Holiday Books 2024

 

Series Greetings!

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

 

What's better than an exciting new book to read? An exciting new book series!

Think of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's inscrutable detective Sherlock Holmes (56 short stories; 4 novels). Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot using his "little grey cells" to solve crimes (33 novels) and ever-observant Miss Marple finding unexpected murders blooming in British gardens (12 novels; 20 short stories).

Part of the fun and adventure of reading about these fictional characters is following them on new exploits. So, in the spirit of the holidays, SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel wish you "Series Greetings!" with these book series we found for you. 

Aimee Leduc Investigations series (21 novels) by Cara Black follows the Paris private investigator as she solves murders from the Marais district to the Bastille. Booklist calls Aimee “a delightfully unbuttoned Audrey Hepburn for the twenty-first century." A former pre-med student, she runs her father's detective agency from an apartment near the exclusive Champs Elysees. Fashionable in designer clothes she finds in second-hand shops, Aimee specializes in computer security, criminal investigation and espionage, solving mysteries with Parisian charm and panache.   

 

The Cat Who series (29 novels) by Lilian Jackson Braun features Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum and newspaper reporter Jim Qwilleran who keep coming across murders in this bestselling series. Started in 1966, the early titles have a sixties vibe, The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern, The Cat Who Turned On and Off. The author herself was a mystery. The New York Times named her "The new detective writer of the year." Two years later, Jackson Braun stopped writing suddenly and disappeared from the book scene – only to reappear 18 years later! With a fourth Cat Who book...and go on to write 25 more.  

Heist Society series (3 novels) by Ally Carter is technically a young adult series, but why let the groms have all the fun? The main characters, headed by Kat Bishop, are an international band of teenage thieves…who steal from the bad guys. Witty, Intelligent and stylish, these thieves travel in private planes to London, Monaco, Belgium, stay in the best hotels, and plot impossible thefts – an impenetrable mansion, a museum with the latest security system, the casino at Monte Carlo. With high tech skills, fearlessness and charm, these are definitely the cool kids!   

 

Jack Reacher bestselling series (29 novels) by Lee and Andrew Child focuses on former Army military police major Jack Reacher, a loner who keeps winding up in bad situations he’s going to set right. A drifter, Reacher is trained in investigation and combat techniques, skills he puts to good use. In the latest book, In Too Deep, Reacher wakes up in a dark room, shackled to a bed, with no memory how he got there…only the knowledge his captors are going to regret it! Publishers Weekly calls Reacher “a wandering folk hero…with Robin Hood-like integrity.”

Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch series (6 novels) by bestselling author Michael Connelly pairs up two of Connelly’s most interesting characters, LAPD Detective Ballard, who grew up on the beaches of Hawaii and paddleboards at Venice Beach to clear her head, and former homicide detective-turned private investigator Bosch, who typically is at odds with authority. In the latest book, The Waiting, the duo are on the trail of a serial rapist/murderer who terrorized the city two decades earlier. With a web of secrets and legal hurdles to get past, heating up this cold case won’t be easy.

A Tea Shop Mystery Series (29 novels) by Laura Childs shows that drinking tea isn't for the faint hearted when murder is on the menu. Fortunately, tea shop owner Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley have a knack for solving crimes while hosting delicious tea parties. Recipes are included in this series. So, you can sit back and enjoy a "cuppa" and nibble on a treat while savoring the different mysteries.

   

Theodore series (5 novels) by J.S. Ellis is narrated by Theodore, a black-and-white Tuxedo cat who understands human speech. In the first book, The Neighbour’s Cat, Theodore explains that he has a problem: his owner, Dean Carter, “is a serial killer.” He kills women and has his eye on another victim, Jane. How can Theodore stop him? “I can’t exactly call for help.” Somehow, Theodore must warn Jane. Set on the island of Malta, the books draw you into Theodore’s world and have you following close on the paws of this resourceful feline detective.      

 

We hope these book series give you thrills and chills and many companionable hours with literary characters who continue to intrigue and entertain you. 

 

 SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.

Circle of Kindness Brightens Holidays

 

A Holiday Gift to be Thankful for

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

When you're kind to others it spreads beyond them and ultimately back to you – creating a circle of kindness that enriches, energizes and restores. It's a circle not just for the holidays, but all year long.

 

Just like recycling gives new life and purpose to the things we have, so do acts of kindness give new dimension and meaning to our own existence.

 

The holiday cards, personal notes, and gifts that you take the time to send can put a smile on someone's face as they are sorting through the bills and advertising notices.

 

Stopping by a neighbor's house to leave a piece of pie or homemade cookies on a doorstep can make their day.

 

Offering to pick up something at the store for someone who can't get out can provide sustenance and relieve anxiety.

 

Phoning to say Hello or texting messages and photos to friends and loved ones keeps them included.

 

Picking up trash when you're walking on the beach or in the park makes it safer and prettier for the next person.

 

However you build your circle of kindness, now is the perfect time to do it during the holidays when everyone needs something to feel good about.

 

In the end – when your kindness comes full-circle from other people's actions – you will find that one of those who benefits the most is you.

 

 

 SurfWriter Girls

 

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

 

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.