The reason I am here...

“When I was five, my father worked two jobs to make ends meet. He ended his second job at midnight and picked up my mother and me at my Tutu’s house after work. It was a 30 minute drive over the mountain, and down the treacherous winding old Pali road each night.

One night we made our usual trek home, I was asleep on the back seat of the car and my mother was dozing off in the front seat next to my father. As we started down the winding one lane road on the edge of a steep drop, my father, who was exhausted, fell asleep. He didn’t remember what happened next, only that he and my mother awoke at the same time. They had traveled all the way down the dangerous winding road without any memory of doing it, and had no idea of where they were. Their surroundings did not look like our small town of Kaneohe. As they looked around, they realized that they were in the neighboring district of Kailua!

How had they made it safely down the winding road? It would have been impossible to have made it safely down that road on their own. They knew that all of our lives had been spared through divine intervention. It had surely been an angel that had driven the car down that winding road and guided us safely past the danger that would have claimed our lives.

I am here because of an angel. I show my gratitude by helping others as they walk their path in life, and help shine the light of Lomilomi.

This is the reason I am here.”

About Kumu Karen

Karen Leialoha Carroll lives in Hawaii on the island of Oahu with her husband, RC. Her six grown children have blessed her with 16 grandchildren. “I am rich with grandchildren!”, she laughs.

Kumu was born and raised on Oahu, and graduated from the Kamehameha Schools, an elite school for children of Hawaiian ancestry. She received a nursing degree and also interned with Papa Kalua Kaiahua, the great Hawaiian healer from Maui. She is descended from a family of spiritual healers from the Big Island and Oahu.

Her jobs have included: Mortgage processor, triage appointment clerk, Clinical nursing, medical-Surgical nursing, Psychiatric nursing, and owner/operator of two adult residential care homes and senior day care program. Kumu has owned and operated a 4-acre white ginger farm and sold white Micronesian ginger leis in retail outlets island-wide. She is the founder of a non-profit organization, and has taught classes in caregiver training for families, as well as organized ukulele classes for disadvantaged children. She was the activity director for Lunalilo Home, a care facility for elderly Hawaiians that was set up by Hawaii’s King William Charles Lunalilo. As their Kahu, minister, she did clearings, blessings and services for them and continues to do blessings for homes and businesses in Hawaii, Japan, and on the mainland.

She currently teaches seminars in Hawaii, the mainland, and Japan. Her students range from massage professionals (they can receive CEU's), and doctors, to housewives and teens. She provides Lomilomi seminars to Japanese-speaking students. She would like to share Lomilomi with families who can use it and share it with other family members.

“My life is so full,” she says, “I am truly blessed”