Simple Life

A Simple Life~~written by Kanani Enos in summer of 2006.

This song was written after a visit with one of my favorite uncle's I grew up knowing and loving very much. We had a great conversation, on the side of the road of all places..near a spot where he did a lot of gardening work.  After many years of not seeing each other, we talked for a long time.  It was a moment of true connection and it touched me deeply.  An amazing musician, gardener, fun loving guy...his life is an interesting tale of tragedy, love, good intentions, imperfections, and what seems to be a lot of loss.  You could call his life sad, yet elements of his own life mirror a lot of our own lives, I'm sure.  He's one of those people that you could see on the side of the street and easily judge by outward appearances.  Our society has become one that is very hard to function in healthily, even with the best up-bringing and opportunities.  Put a little history of introduced diseases and mentalities to Hawai'i's fertile soil into the pot, add some lack of appropriate coping mechanisms to deal with the disintegration of the family unit, and a dash of drugs and alcohol addiction, and you have a very commonly eaten stew of mental and spiritual sickness that plagues generations of our kanaka maoli. We are beginning to rise and heal from this now.  Even through this hardship and sickness, my uncle is one of those people who's light shines so bright. His words sometimes fall on me like prophecies I forgot lifetimes ago, that I am supposed to remember. His blessings to me have been his smile, his loving words, and his guitar playing....
In the loss of everything material and of this world....there remains his belief.... in God's LOVE.
I wrote this song for him...as if he is singing it...to the world....

Simple Life

Verse 1*
Born into a simple life
A loving family
Raised by the earth, the wind, the rain, the sun, and the sea
Ocean sparkles in the sunlight of my childhood dreams (2x)

Verse 2*
Too many goodbyes
Of loved ones came and gone
Left to my defenses
To find my comfort in a song
Memories they weave their leis around me (2x)

Chorus*
Oh..and time moves on
Oh..the road turns
Here I'm left alone to find
Some certainty...
But, I'll sit under this tree
Sing my melody
Find my peace
With my destiny...
This true heart of mine, still tries to find
A way to smile

Verse 3*
Love in the beginning
Is so free and kind
It gives and takes without a care
Still it changes with time
And the fruit she bears holds the promise that our love will stay (2x)

Verse 4*
And here I face the morning sun
With my back to the west
Many faces, they pass behind
Of those I once knew the best
And what once was, is no more, but much remains the same  (2x)

Chorus*
Oh..and time moves on
Oh..the road turns
Here I'm left alone to find
Some certainty...
But, I'll sit under this tree
Sing my melody
Find my peace
With my destiny...
This true heart of mine
Still tries to find
A way to smile...