1. Redup. of malama 1 (light, month, moon); light of knowledge, clarity of thinking or explanation, enlightenment; shining, radiant, clear. Ka mālamalama o ka ʻākau, northern lights. hoʻo.mā.lama.lama To cause light, brighten, illuminate, enlighten, inform, civilize. (PNP malamalama.)

2. Coris ballieui, a fish; the name may be qualified by the colors ʻula and uli.

3. (Cap.) n. Star name, no data. (Kuhelani.)

I have a new puppy, four months old now, that I need to take outside every night before bed and then back outside every morning, in the wee hours (super wee this morning at 3 am). On the one hand, I am cursing him, calling him a brat as I carry him and shower his head with kisses, having to take him out so early in the morning. The blessing is that I get to look up into the clear dark sky and see the glow of the moon, the sliver that it has been recently (and then none, and then back again), but definitely its distinct mālamalama, illuminating its radiant self to me. As if no one else cares but the mahina (moon). And then back inside I go knowing full well that I can count on that mahina to shine down upon me again when I go outside again. In all its mālamalama glory.

My son’s name has the mālamalama in it. His name translates as the radiancy of the night. He was, indeed, radiant in the night upon his birth.

Let the light shine in your life today. And tonight. And then again the next day.

Ua ao Hawaiʻi, ke ʻōlino nei mālamalama – Hawaiʻi is enlightened, for the brightness of day is here (Hawaiʻi is in an era of education).