Ho'omanawanui ...Practice patience and endurance … TIMING IS DIVINE

Mahina is bright in the southwestern room  of the sky this morning.  The Winter Solstice just passed came with a lunar eclipse and there is a sense of ho'omanawanui here in the forest.  Our kitty JOTS is pressed up against my okole cleaning herself.  The huntress is healing from a wound.  We help out with poltices of freshly juiced wheatgrass.  Pete runs the long stems of grass through the juicer and I take the soppy pulp to her wound, run the juice down her back.  She licks the stuff into her.  Time and time again the healing green juice has been our first aid for wounds and imbalances.  In the summer and fall we grew the grass and sold trays of it to a friend who needed to supplement her regime for healing.  When it got to cold to grow it here in the wood I found trays of it at our local community market The Goose.  Where ever we've been Pete has soaked, sprouted and grown the powerful oxygen-rich seeds.

Living close to the Papa, close to the Earth like we are the meaning of ho'omanawanui grows.  Life is more purposeful when you care for home in 8x10 foot pods of space.  This season, our third winter of living from a vardo, we have a second shelter from which we cook, store our ukana (stuff) and generally hang out.  It's a quonset made from an old green house frame, covered in metal siding and floored in Pete's unique 4x4 foot tile pads. There are four of these tile pads fitted onto a gravel bed for our floor. What we did under the sky and then under plastic tarps has moved into the Quonset.  My family helped us out with a second Radiant Electric Heater, we use it in the Quonset.  Mahalo to our Waimanalo 'ohana.  There's little insulation now, so it's cooler than the vardo.  Slowly and patiently we learn what we can do to insulate with materials that will not cause reactions.  Slowly it warms up in here and I can work at the keyboard awhile.  It has been many months since we have had a computer, or access to internet.  Today we have both, and yet we know this could change.

We have dreamed about being somewhere on the Earth where shared resources, common interests, and commitment to chemical free fresh-air living was present.  Slowly over the passed three years we have found pieces of this dream.  All along Ke Akua and the guardians Na aumakua have been there to direct the timing.  Some things, some relationships, many beliefs and practices have changed.  We have learned who we are becoming everyday.  We are growing older and wisdom comes with each speed bump we meet along the way.  Speed bumps force you to slow down or break down.  Funny how we live in the woods with a road filled with huge speed bumps.

Practice patience and endurance … TIMING IS DIVINE

... Patience is the greatest ally

-from an interpretation of the Runes

Often I long for the white sandy beaches of the Islands of Hawaii, and mourn the reality that the beaches and forests of another island must be enough for this wahine and her kane.  There are many reasons and seasons for not being in Hawaii; they don't really matter at this point.  Patience is slowly becoming that great ally of progress with my soul's journey.  This Makua continues to learn how necessary it is to be open to initiations and new growth at all ages.  Sixty-two is a bumper crop year for growth for me as the newest winter approaches and yet another season of adjustments and adapting challenge me to keep on keep'n on. 

Old friends cannot help but judge the choices I make and with each season I am aware and then accepting of my path which is not a niche carved out in pre-ordained fashion.  In the forest of an Island damp with rain and friendly companions, we adjust to the place and pray for Akua to direct our course to serve that highest good.

Patience, not judgment is that great ally. 

Clarify... Question for clarity when making decisions … ASK

http://mrsvierkant.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/at-a-crossroads/

It's been a bit of the while since posting here, life has been full and my focus has been on mending and writing over at VardoForTwo.  Earlier this month I fell and broke bone in my arm.  The chronicle of my mending and tending to the care of this old makua is over there at VardoForTwo, if you care to follow the tale.  As with near everything that happens I find the lesson in the experience and hope positive tomorrows grow from the learning. 

Sometimes though, the learning is not positive exactly, the learning might be illusion masquerading as truth for a very long time or in astrological terms, Neptune may be fogging the scene.  I've come out of years of Neptune-fogging and for all its angst and loss, I am healing up my fractured elbow and right arm with a new way of using the facts.  What I'm saying is, thank god it was a fracture I am recovering from and thank the gods for the fractures to my faulty thinking/stinking thinking that could lead me down those dead-ends or patterns of delusion if I don't make use of my mind and the signs.

Elsa from ElsaElsa.com has a terrific article/post describing the astrological energy available to me and the collective to 'use your mind ... clarify when making decisions would be the o'o for na makua (us adults).  The months of Saturn (planet of structure and systematic approach) is in retrograde into Virgo and Elsa tells one of her inimitable stories to flick switches in old/faulty thinking or not thinking to make decisions.  Here's a snip of Elsa's story about revolutionizing your thinking.  It's a good whole ramble, so link to its totality by clicking here:

... Once it hits you how important it is to ave your info straight, you can see how disabling it is to not have your info straight. Draw just one wrong conclusion and from there on out, you are acting blind and foolish whether you know it or not.


Since this is exactly what most people do, when you opt to do otherwise it provides clear advantage. Nothing against Neptune but when your life is as stake you really don’t want to be acting in a fog if you can help it.


I wrote this out because it has wide application and Saturn’s transit though Virgo opposing Uranus provides an excellent opportunity to revolutionize your thinking or your thought process so you no longer draw stupid conclusions ...

Do you clarify and use good information in your life decisions?

Feel the heartbeat of the culture … SENSE YOUR PLACE

Mars, planet of action, war the force that infuses us with power has finally moved into his forward progress after months of re-tracing, or being in retrograde.  March 10th, 2010, Mars went direct.  The energy of that final bit of retrograde hit me like thick mud ... lo'i kalo mud (LINK TO these photos.  They are awesome ...made me more homesick than I am ALREADY...YIKES!) Taro patch mud.  My old body has a mind of her very own ... wise beyond the head.  This past weekend from tailbone to po'o (head) and all the na'au (guts) inbetween, I was slowed way, way down. There have been many things to do since the New Moon last (in February, in time for the Lunar New Year) and with Mars amplifying both my kane and me, we have been very busy.  Pete has a new biz in the launching ... we'll let every body know about it with the coming New Moon, next Monday, March 15th.

Mars in retrograde was a powerfully specific call to me ... I have Mars and Saturn in tight in my natal chart, and even without a lot of astrology to explain it ... the lifetime pattern for this old gal is one of reigning in (that's Saturn) a fiercy forward motion that I was born with (that would be Mars in Leo).  What happened with this three-month of Ms. Macha Mars in retrograde?  Well, the good, bad and the ugly sides of a reigned in Macha showed up in spades. For as long as I've loved to read and tell stories, I have loved learning.  Personal evolution is a passion with me, I work hard at it and really need to take it easy a lot more.  To sense my place, sometimes, like this weekend, I must be called into the taro patch and slow down ho'omanawanui. 

Malama and Prayers to the Islands and her people

Sending prayers of safety and protection to the Islands of my birth ... as the tsunami is scheduled to arrive in Hilo on the island of Hawaii ... as I write this.

Malama, malama, take care all!

Aloha nui loa kakou,
Mokihana and Pete

Inheritance Tax, Responsibility, Kuleana, Astrological O'o

Pete and I have been listening to "Hawaiian Radio Connection"  KBCS. fm transmitting from Bellevue College in Washington state.  For two hours while I hand-washed, spun and hung the clothes, cloth napkins and one cotton sheet Hawaiian music filled us.  Never mind the wet, wet Washington weather white sandy beaches, warm water and delicious Hawaiian music kept us company.  It was great concert, a musical treat to inspire and refresh these two old souls who know that being back on the islands isn't a choice we can make, right now.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.


There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.

"You were made for this", Clarissa Pinkola Estees

http://www.wanttoknow.info/youweremadeforthis

Maintaining contact and connection with the Islands happens in a rainbow of ways.  Yesterday for example, I was at Mukilteo State Park.  Parked at the edge of the beach, I sat behind the wheel of 'Scout' the Subaru waiting for the squall to pass through.  It IS the month of rains, as it might be almost any time of the year in the Pacific Northwest.  No, really, the rains are back in force this month so I waited before getting out to make my o'o carrying walk along the sloping rock-strewn shore.  Getting out to the edge of big water/ocean/Puget Sound/a lake/a river is one of the 'cures' that helps me detoxify the affects of an MCS episode.  This week the affects of the formaldehyde from the construction next door is what I'm working on.  Oxygen rich air from ke kai or ka wai (salty or fresh water marshes) is a major fix.  I truly wish Puget Sound was warm enough to swim in, aue, it is not.  So, I settle for a walk and not disappointed.

SENSE YOUR PLACE: Actions we can take during the day and night of Lono

http://alohaconsultants.com/wst_page4.html

Each day I notice a few more visitors from kuu one hanau (the sands of my birth) here at Makua O'o.  Welina, welcome.  Though you visit without speaking or commenting, the comfort of your visits touch me where it matters when I see dots on our Vistor Map show up from Kahului, Lihue, Kailua.  Mahalo for coming.  My na'au needs the company.  When I need to hear the sound of a voice that can trigger island kine harmony in these old bones I call my brother in Waimanalo.  To hear his deep Sagittarian voice with the definitely pidgin twang is a taste as good if not better than eating a big slice of Ma's pineapple upside cake.  We have been through the ups and downs of six decades and after all that, we still have each other and it feels like we have come to a place of accepting the other with grace and appreciation.  I can laugh deepest with this guy when I hear that a small kid time friend who now lives in Georgia showed up in Waimanalo for a cruise down memory lane, Kuliouou Valley style.  Man, what a journey life is.

To 'sense your place' ... that o'o has a different meaning for me each time I pick it up.  This morning as I begin my day the pounding of hammers and nail guns next door reminds me the construction next door is happening.  Just a few feet from our basement digs here in Everett, I dangle my carbon filter mask from my ear for awhile ... pull it back into place and continue to peck away with today's story.  The huge big box of a house being erected next door is being built with particle board.  Particle board or "used to be wood" is one of the YUCKSTERS of contemporary construction.  Particle board is loaded with formaldehyde, and I (as well as all folks with MCS and the rest of the world, too for that matter) am very sensitive to the chemicals in formaldehyde.  I use the filtration mask to keep my exposure to a minimum, and in a day our Austin Jr. Plus foremaldehyde-filtering air system will add to the quality of air in this basement, and in our tiny VardoForTwo. 

NOTICE: one of the makua's o'o

My Ma and Dad gifted both David my brother and me with large ears and big eyes.  Though my brother and I need glasses to pick up on the detail of things in the distance, that minor adjustment has never interfered with the gift of noticing.  In fact, it would serve me to ignore or let pass alot of the details and bits of stimulation in an ordinary day or night.  Since that characteristic is not part of my native personality, I have learned to accept my observant nature and vivid imagination as gifts Ke Akua tucked into my soul at birth and pray for help when I've absorbed too much.

One of the answers Ke Akua has sent my way has been a different way to view time.  Perhaps that answer becomes more welcome as I age, and witness time speeding up and the kino (the body) slowing down.  In a very tender way, Ke Akua opened us, my kane Pete and me, to a more ancient and feminine way of tracking or being with time.  Through the cycles of light and dark, night and day, Kaulana Mahina (the Hawaiian Moon Calendar) and the attending to Earth's only Moon becomes more and more important in our life. 

'OLE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF THE HAWAIIAN MOON CALENDAR

Three days and nights of the 'Ole Cycle according to the Hawaiian Moon Calendar begin today. We will refrain from new posts (though we moderate any new comments) and spend the 'Ole Moon phases reviewing and finishing things already begun.




A hui hou (see you later) when Mahina the Moon moves through her phases.
Mokihana

Never underestimate the power of a well-written letter

The quote comes from Jane Austin's novel Persuasion, a theme of  love once lost and then found, "Never underestimate the power of a well-written letter" is just one of the literary gems that remind me how vital real communication is.  E-mail and blogging stretches the meaning and the quality of communication, and I think that's a good thing.  With practice, a new blogger can get better, "e-mail" was once considered absent from the spell-cheking dictionary.  With Saturn in the sign of Libra the work of clear communication in our relationships is key work.  For those of us who live with the daily risk of being exposed and physically incapacitated by the choices our neighbors, visiting friends or family members or house-mates make clear communication is critical.  The process of becoming clear in our needs relating to MCS takes time and energy.  Early-on many of us aren't sure what's happening to us, so being clear about explaining what we need comes in bits and pieces.  I'd like to include a helpful and resourceful form of clear communication, compassionately written as a letter.  The following template was written by a dear friend of two MCSers who are on a road trip from the Eastern American coast to many Intentional Communities/friends/families in the United States.  Keith and Mary share their adventures on the road as they travel and gather folks for Laughter Yoga along the way.  The template that follows first appeared on The Canary Report and is reprinted here with permission from Mary Rives. 

Readers of our blogs may or may not be familiar with the daily courage and challenges the face people who live with chemical sensitiviites.  This letter was first written by a friend who does 'get' what it takes for one (or two and a dog) with MCS to visit or be with people.
-Mahalo Mary

The power of the word: The subtle yet powerful difference between "adjusting" and "adapting"

Ho'oponopono ... to adjust

Ho'oma`a ... to adapt

Source:  Ulukau

Almost forty years ago I boarded a plane at the Honolulu International Airport, heading for Seattle.  I was a newly married woman leaving the islands, the valley and the culture and the ways of being on the Planet familiar to me thus far.  This was summer, 1971 and this wahine was in for a major re-tooling at so many different levels.  1971 was the calm or the pre-renassaince era of cultural awakening.  The plane was taking me kela (over there) and the action of re-discovery would begin on the islands of the Pacific shortly after that.  My destiny was cast at birth, astrologically, Venus was in the sign of Sagittarius when I was pulled from the womb (a C-section; I was really not ready yet ... auwe!) and Jupiter sat close by, conjunct Venus, in the 10th house.  I would auana (wander and travel).  There were signs of the seeker in my chart and in my genes. 

My decades of life in the Pacific Northwest at that point were years spent in a very haole world.  My son and I were singular in our brownness and at that time my choice whether conscious or not, was to ho'oma'a (to adapt).  Leaving O`ahu, Kuli`ou`ou Valley and the history that I felt (at the time) confined me to a mold too tight and unyielding, I believed it right to become something or someone else.  In the definition of things, to ho'oma'a is to adapt ... as in to become something else in order to survive or acculturate.  The place that was my Pacific Northwest home allowed such incredibly pristine new realities.  It was country-living perched on a high bank overlooking Puget Sound.  Puget Sound = ocean to me even though it was not really ocean, it was big water and that was close enough.  In many ways, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest; grew to become an adult with successes in the material and working-girl world.  The culture of the times valued these successes and I was affirmed.  My hapa-haole son grew up in a place that would provide him a base that seems to suit his Libra Sun and Gemini Moon.  He is comfortable with foundation and yet his Gemini Moon seeks. 

'OLE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF THE HAWAIIAN MOON CALENDAR: 'ole start today

We observe the 'ole days and nights as my Hawaiian ancestors did observe and practice.  Rather than plant new projects or activities we'll review or weed the ones we've already started.  No new posts during the 'ole cycle.

From the site on Lunar Calendar of the Hawaiian Islands (on our sidebar here at Makua O'o)

7.  'Olekukahi (first 'Oleku, days 7-10 mark the transition from less than half-lit moon to the more than half-lit moon): "the farmer does not plant on this day" (Kepelino); "'Ole" means "nothing," so planting and fishing may be not productive in the three "'ole" days [7-9 on the lunar calendar] (Handy and Handy).




8. 'Olekulua (second 'Oleku; Olekulua is the first quarter moon; the names for days 7-10 match the names of days 21-24 of the last quarter moon.): "farmers generally dislike it for planting"; "a good night for torching fishing" (Kepelino).



9. 'Olekukolu (third 'Oleku): "the farmer thinks little of this day"; "a good night for torch-fishing" (Kepelino).



10. 'Olepau (last 'Oleku): "it is a productive day, say the cultivators" (Kepelino). "Pau" means "end" so non-productivity is at an end (Handy and Handy).

Esperanto ... the universal language KNOWLEDGE IS FOUND IN MANY PLACES

Here's something to consider just before the 'Ole Cycle begins tomorrow (lasting three nights this time ... for it is the Ho'onui Phase ... the phase when the moon is getting full).  CJ Wright keeper of the space called Auntie Moon has ideas for making good use of the Sun's occupancy in Aquarius.  One of the 12 things CJ suggested as a 'To Do' during the days and nights of Aquarius is "learn a phrase in Esperanto the universal language."  That immediately caught my eye and my love of language.  Thanks CJ.

Here's the link to a few phrases of Esperanto.  Something new before new things are set on review and rewind, what fun!

Rainbow Tree's Eclectic Oracle Blogging: Oracle Message from the Fairy Realm "Dreams Coming True"

Rainbow Tree's Eclectic Oracle Blogging: Oracle Message from the Fairy Realm "Dreams Coming True"

Sometimes a seeming disaster makes room for the miracle of something yet to be. Yesterday I found Rainbow Tree's message from the Fairy Realm (in the culture of Hawaii, these small folk might be called Menehune ... although I would also name them as 'aumakua ...). While we search for our next Word-crafter aka 'Ruby II' there are

"WONDERFUL PEOPLE AND SITUATIONS THAT SURROUND ME NOW, And My heart is
filled with gratitude."
Mahalo Rainbow Tree for sharing the messages (I got it~)

Mokihana

Our Ruby (the laptop) has died

The title says it all.  For the story and our ka hea (call) for ideas go here.

Kaulana Mahina ... naming the phases of Mahina and being in the flow

A bit of ke'ia and kela (skipping and linking to sites of interest, and visits to our other blogs)

The three night 'Ole Cycle of Mahina (the moon) during 'Emi or Waning phase is pau, and productive fishing and planting resumes.  This link will introduce you, dear readers, to the site created by Kapi`olani Community College on the Island of O`ahu, Hawai'i.  A tremendous resource for cultural material and education.  We have been involved in plenty of internal weeding and restoration.  Click here to read how the asteroid CHIRON is doing some very deep restoration work this Winter.

CJ Wright author of the blog Auntie Moon, astrologer and curator of all things Mahina, has become one of my favorite blog stops.  Her recent article about the phases of the moon for 2010 along with activities that suit the astrology of the moon's phases is a very cool way to keep in the flow of things.  To read CJ's article click here.

Na Mea Wai Wai Hawaii

"There is life in a kindly reply"
Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha

Yesterday I found an email from another Hawaiian native living not far from us . 'The beautiful bird' is living in Portland, Oregon and was searching for an 'olelo no'eau (a Hawaiian proverb). She gave me a brief idea of the reason for her asking, and then the search was on. In times past I carried a library of treasured print resources. Among those books were a basic 'ohana (family) of resources that had been passed to me from teachers, purchased from book stores, and gifted me by friends and family. The decade of travel and wandering as Pete and I simplify and cull and are asked to zen down even more quickly (MCS can do that) means that library of books is minimalized. Multiple chemical sensitivities for me includes being sensitive to and reactive to the chemicals used to print and assemble books, magazines, and other print. The loss has devastated me in the earliest times. Slowly, the loss has turned to acceptance and now it does please me that those books are with my son, my niece and others who were ready for the teaching.

Yesterday's kahea (the call) inspired me and motivated both Pete and me to find the tiny library of Na Mea Hawaii (things of Hawaii) that we do still keep with us. With concentrated effort, Pete found the tiny stack of cards printed with the collection of Hawaiian proverbs assembled and preserved by kupuna Mary Kawena Pukui. The cards fit in Pete's palm, and for many years, and through thousands of wandering miles over oceans, continent and islands those tiny cards have been a daily comfort. Kupuna Kawena, scholar and teacher is among the revered and valued human treasures of culture -- music, language and living practices -- of Na Mea Wai Wai Hawaii. I used to carry and keep close the tome of a book written by Kupuna Kawena, 'Olelo No'eau to do my work with community, used it to add meaning to a project or piece of writing that I was working with, or when I simply needed a bit of wisdom to ground me.

Yesterday's kahea and search led to rediscover the value of those beautifully worn snippets of timeless wisdom. Among them was something the young wahine Hawai`i found fitting for her purpose. So cool! The search also led me to discover that archives and electronic access to Hawaiian language, and archives of Kupuna Kawena's 'Olelo No'eau are available to those who have access to cyberspace. Aue! I have included links to a few of those electronic connections. There is power in the word and to see how a culture and language that teetered on the edge of extinction can now be accessed through electronic libraries, wow, we are indeed not in control of how life will proceed in the hands of generations to come.

Three on-line resources to access NA WAI WAI HAWAI'I:

'OLELO NO'EAU Archives Selected proverbs assembled at Leeward Community College on the island of O'ahu, Hawaii

ULUKAU (Electronic Hawaiian Dictionary) A project created by Aha Punana Leo (the Hawaiian language immersion schools of Hawaii)

The Kumulipo (The Hawaiian Sacred Texts of Creation) This one the translation done by Queen Lili'uokalani, Hawaii's last reigning queen, done during her house arrest when Americans were stealing the 'aina.

The Makua O'o practices using the o'o
"Know that wisdom is found in many places … SOFTEN THE GROUND OF YOUR BEING"