What is a Po Haku Spirit Stone?

Four years ago, Eva and I took our dog Fella on this last great adventure before he lost his long battle with bone cancer. Way out on the point of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, Eva found this stone and kept it.

She remembered a story I told her about Polynesian spirit stones called Po Haku. How some noble families had stones that held the mana (Spirit Energy) of their KaPuna ancestors who watched over the family.

She was young and thought that human body heat was a representation of that spiritual energy. So she held this stone under Fella until it warmed up. He died 5 days later.

When my father was dying, she put it in his hand. When my mother was dying, she put it in her hand and held her fingers closed until the stone warmed up. When our cat Zoe was sick, she put it under her. When Eddie had pinworms, she held it in his armpit. Same with our cat Ernie.

She had me hold it.

Then, when we go on our vacations to retrace my father’s footsteps, she brought this stone with us.

Last night, she pulled it out of her backpack after all these months and years and gave it to me to bring with me on my upcoming road trip.

She told me, “Someday, if you get married again, your new wife can hold this stone. And when I get married, my husband too.”

All this time, she’s been creating her own little spirit stone for our family. And technically, according to the laws of physics, there is a tiny bit of thermal energy from all those passed family members still inside that stone.

If you want to go deeper into this work, you can follow along at Eric Beuning’s Author Page. I’ll be building it piece by piece.