Ho'oponopono

Here it is dear listener ~ the first episode of the new season of Word of the Week!

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Episode Transcript

Hello and welcome to Word of the Week! I’m your host, Liz. This podcast is dedicated to words and phrases that are untranslatable into English. Let’s discover the nuance of the world’s languages, shall we? 

Word of the Week was initially a creative project for me in 2019, it was something to occupy my time outside of working a part-time job. This was pre-pandemic life, when a creative project was a simpler idea. I got a new job in January of 2020, which was full-time and left me little space to continue the podcast. And then, March 2020 happened. Stimulating a creative project didn’t feel so simple. Stimulating much of anything didn’t feel very simple. Here we all are, for better or worse, 4+ years later and the world looks a different place. Feels a different place. Feeling capable and stable and ready enough to restart this podcast engine took some time. And it felt right to pick a new direction, a new guiding principle for what to bring each week. This is now a time for us to be influenced by “that which cannot be named”. Seemed fitting, since we can’t quite put a word or phrase to how the last few years have felt for us all. I think we forget sometimes that humans are animals with deep and flowing emotions. When we are left speechless in awe, or in despair, or in confusion, we desperately want to find the right words. I’ll be the first to tell you that words matter, but I also believe that words can fail us. Not always, but we’re human and that’s expected. Let’s settle in for some surprises as the weeks continue. Let’s collectively lean back and listen more deeply to what we’re saying, with our words and with our hearts.

This week’s word is ho’oponopono, a Hawaiian word that comes from ho'o ("to make") and pono ("right"). The repetition of the word pono means "doubly right" or being right with both self and others. Solving a problem or issue by talking it out. American culture doesn’t have this type of social mechanism, other than perhaps “arbitration behind closed doors”. We mostly associate this with labor management relations. Let’s get the unions and the C-level executives in a room together until a contract is agreed upon. 

But ho’oponopono is more than that. It’s for disputes between in-laws, complications between sexual partners, business partner disagreements. The original native Hawai’ian culture is a homogenous one, so it’s not a stretch to think of this word being very useful when everyone knows everyone. There are strong ties of kinship, interdependent livelihoods and spiritual duties, as well as a deep desire for equitable and peaceful settling of issues. 

How can we adopt this word? Well, maybe if the families of two partners getting married can’t agree on the seating arrangement at the wedding, then you round up everybody for a ho’oponopono. Maybe if your team at work has such a variety of personalities and conflicts, that it’s starting to impact the quality of the work product, then why don’t you all ho’oponopono? You can use it as a noun or a verb, but it’s referring to the same thing: A new mutual agreement between people. 

Let me be clear though, a ho’oponopono doesn’t mean a consensus-driven agreement. It’s not a compromise necessarily. There are many outcomes available depending on the issue at hand. But it is mandatory to have everyone agree to honor the resolution, whether they actually like it or not. You can imagine then, that multiple ho’oponpono might be needed if it’s a big enough problem. However long it takes, right? 

Here’s to this week… May you all endeavor to adopt this Word of the Week and see the world a little bit differently. I’ll be back next week with a new word. Thank you for listening!