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