Vagueness of time

Vague = without clarity, akaaka 'ole

The subject of vagueness, and vagueness in terms of time comes up when I try to 'explain' the value of The Hawaiian Moon Calendar, or the Po Mahina, in my life.  The monthly wa'a workshops I teach have been happening for six months now and we are just beginning to scratch the surface of this spiritual practice with time.  Pete and I were introduced to Po Mahina four years ago, the lights went on when we were given our first Hawaiian Moon Calendar.  But, the practice and the spiritual connections are a daily and nightly experience and like the affect of Mahina on the tides, my understanding ebbs and flows. 

The subtle and powerful lessons of Po Mahina begin with the way time is 'divided.'  Depending upon where you are geographically (from the Hawaiian Islands and Kanaka Universe) these divisions change and so, the precision of the observation of time and the tracking of time is different.  Can a body of people, a culture make room for that vagueness?  Each who reads this will come up with a different answer and that is the bounty of it.  Let's try this.

Today is Sunday, September 11, 2011.  What does that mean to you?

Today is Mahealani, the second of four full moons in the Po Mahina.  What does that mean to you?

Today is the day seven years ago, Pete and I celebrated a wedding with family and friends.  What does that mean to me?

Depending upon how you remember things, dates, time the answers are different.  Some people will demand precision all the time (fixed signs?)  I have lots of fixed signs in my natal chart, but I have a lot of rascal in the sign of Leo, so there is a fiendishly unexpected cackle to me that will trigger pranks.  Today as we finished setting up at the Sunday Farmers' Market I talked with a couple folks about the short article I wrote for the newsletter.  It's a brief introduction to The Hawaiian Calendar.  It's difficult to introduce the calendar in a few words, and the concern about 'vagueness in time' came up.  I knew the idea of putting an article together like this might not be timely.  "How do you explain your spiritual practice?"  That question, rhetorical rather than simply  answered, it was a response to me saying it's a stretch to write in 300 words, a practice that requires a lifetime.

Po Mahina includes metaphor and spiritual practice in the 30 phases of a 3 week month.  Visitors and readers come to glean what makes sense to them, and I use the artform of story to make sense of my spiritual journey.  And you?