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

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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. 

I've been writing about the Lunar New Year coming up this Sunday, February 14th.  That's also Valentine's Day and a more wonderful coupling of celebrations couldn't be more auspicious.  Now, Valentine's Day is a time I do celebrate with my dear man, Pete.  Throughout the days I remember to tell me (and him!) I LOVE YOU, so it's not a one time in the year sort of thing you understand.  What I am sensing as I string my thoughts together, or braid the many gifts of insight this morning is how important it is for all us makua (the responsible adults) to take action in as many compassionate and positive ways as we can.  This makua or kupuna depending on your definition, has been affected by toxics over the long-term.  I was born on an island sprayed regularly with DDT for mosquitoes; my parents lived in Honolulu and Kaneohe when the US military was experimenting with chemicals and the plantations were using agricultural chemicals with 'shelf-lives' equal to that of TWINKIES. 

MCS is a condition reflective of choices that tamper with our well-being.  I know it in my every day life, I take responsibility for what I can do today and sense my place.  Today is the day and night of the Akua Lono (the god of fertilitity and agriculture), a time to offer prayers and actions of appreciation to the values of malama 'aina.  According to Kaulana Mahina (the Hawaiian Moon Calendar) January and February are the month of Ka'elo ... the raining times and it makes a lot of sense to be attentive and conscious of this energy of prayerful malama 'aina (caring for all that sustains us), before the new lunar year on Sunday.  Here's one way of adding to your prayerful action of malama 'aina today.  Tell the American Congress to stop allowing the use of long term poisoning chemicals. 

PANNA writes this about those long-term poisoning chemicals that are already in my old kino (body). 

"A chemical soup of long-lasting substances like DDT, PCBs and PBDEs has contaminated our environment and our bodies for decades. Most of the global community recognized years ago that these persistent chemicals pose a threat to current and future generations around the world. That's why 169 countries have adopted the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which targets this entire class of chemicals for worldwide phaseout."

Link here to read the entire article and take action by signing the petition asking The US Congress to Stop Poisoning the next generation.

O'o in hand?  I mua ... go forward.