COUNT ON THE MOON, but don't try to nail her down!

It has been an interesting day.  I took myself on many walks through the forest, thinking, wrestling with the new awarenesses dawning on me.  The weather so changeable and unpredictable:  nearly spring but thunder-y and then hail.  I'm preparing for another look at the relationship I have with Hina, the goddess of the sky, the goddess of the moon.  From my spot in the tall trees of Washington state I have tried to nail down (in my fixed signs of the zodiac fashion) a goddess who is unnailable. 

Pete came home from working at the Tilthe Garden, and I told him of my quandry.  He's the fix-'ems man so we went to work on my moon dilemna.  We clicked on Kalei Tsuha's video of Kaulana Mahina, and listened once more to a perspective that is the basis for my joy-in-this-work.  If I stand in my Western boots and attempt to attune to Mahina she will elude me.  She will move her water and her wisdom just far enough from my grasp to loosen my grip. 

We listened and found again, the essence of the journey to Count on the Moon.  The journey is not in the tight fist or tight jaw.  The essence is in the knowing of subtlety and character ... changeable, effecting, slightly off-center, an approximation.  A mystery.  How can you nail down a mystery? 

Part 2 of The Workshop COUNT ON THE MOON: "Malama I Ka `Aina

The second month-long study group-work shop begins Sunday, May 1st.  A preview of "Malama I Ka `Aina is now available for all to read and enjoy.  This  preview will only be accessible to the public through Saturday, April 30th, and becomes a private registered-reader blog come MAY DAY, May 1st. (More details about the 4-Part Count On The Moon Workshops are outlined on the side-bar of this blog, Makua O'o ... over there, to the right.)

Click here to enjoy the preview and glimse the next level of study that weaves Counting on the Moon with Caring for the Land. 

To register for "Malama I Ka `Aina":

Email us at ssvardoATgmailDOTcom
Subject "Malama I Ka `Aina"
Ask to be included/invited (or ask any questions) to the blog-workshop
We will reply with directions for registration

Mail your check to:

Mokihana Calizar
P.O. Box 483
Langley, WA 98260

Mahalo,
Mokihana and Pete

POST 'Ole Energy: Truffled and Celebrating

Well, here we are after the 'Ole Moons, and the lessons that come from rest, retreat and review.  We took it nice and easy yesterday.  The rainy day helped slow us down, leaving a good couple of inches of water in the wheel barrel.  The Easter Bunny delivered a bunch of truffles freshly-made in town, and we enjoyed a first dinner at friends in a very, very long time.  The workshop and study group COUNT ON THE MOON is really something!  We are learning so much about ourselves, and our connection with the natural cycle of things.  I'm especially aware of how making mistakes makes me a more bearable being ... like a bush bean, I think!  I've learned how teaching something can be the best teacher.  I've learned my son is my best teacher.  I've learned to see mistakes as practice.  Practice so I can make more mistakes, and still keep practicing.

We have reason to CELEBRATE.  Pete and I arrived on Whidbey Island a year ago, and are still here and loving it.  Those who have read our journey here at Maka O'o know the years before Whidbey.  Those years have brought us here, and the story can now be different.  A pot of turkey chilli is bubbling on the stove.  Sunny rays fill the Quonset, and the sounds of birds and Pete at the saw make for the sounds of being at home.  We are in the process of making one more small space to become our bath house ... an ofuro house.  A soaking tub (oh thank you akua!) made to suit us with hot water that we can sit in.  Oh how beautiful that will be.  Our friendships here on this island expand and people really know who we are, and we contribute the authenticity of folks who have been honed by time and nature...a couple of real characters. 

Work-play-writing and walking in the woods is a combination of gifts that sustain us.  We grow from all the compost of our past experiences and work it back into our today.  I have updated the sidebar over there(to the right) with the newest kahea (call from akua lani e).  COUNT ON THE MOON Workshops are now a 4-part series of monthly study groups.  Take a look, read on, and maybe we will see you there for the newest workshop MALAMA I KA 'AINA (Care for the Land/Earth/Home) or a Hana Hou (one more time) of COUNT ON THE MOON 'Ole Mahalo (blessings of the 'Ole Moons).

Spring is happening here in the woods.  Fall is happening on the flipside of Papa.  Whereever you are, hope there's joy there with you, too.

Many blessings,
Mokihana and Pete

BELIEVE it BEFORE you see it

Almost two months ago, I made a decision to close (make private) the blogs that have chronicled the years of struggle, and creating a safe home and life for us.  The decision was not an easy one for me, but the signals began coming and a significant shift was offering itself to me, and I took the offer.  Said another way 'one door closed and another opened.'  A generation of blogs closed, except for this one.  Makua O'o remains the spiritual foundation that is more than struggle and is a value unstealable...if a value can be stolen at all. 

The doors that opened have taken the form of other blogs and updated versions of blogging, as well as a shift in the stories I tell about myself.  The practice of being makua o'o is a life-time practice; lessons show up in different forms the people who challenge us, or the person we have been sheds skins/beliefs/attitudes; the same o'o (tool) is used in a different way. 

'Believe it before you see it,' is one of the o'o that is making a big, positive difference for me.  It's not an idea that is new to me.  It's a new me that is having the idea work in my life.  Among the influences that drew me closer to this 'new me' is an Internet Friend named Libby.  Through the years of words and blogging on our other blogs, her approach has been a beacon.  Thanks, Libby.  This is for you ...

I have posted onto our newest blog a version of 'Believe it before you see it'.  You might find it worth the read.  Link here to check it out. 

Nana I Ka Mahina Malama I Ka 'Aina Malama I Ke Kai Malama I Ka Po'e

Look to the Moon

Care for the Land

Care for the Sea

Care for the People

(English)

The HUNA Moon

was oh so momona (fat) last night. 

The sky was clear, the air cool.

Through the tall Evergreens

the moon with horns now hidden

becomes a familiar shape.

Pete and I waved at her.

Pete slept deeply (he's a Moon-child Cancer).

I was awake most the night (energized Scorpio).

EARTH DAY (that ought to be everyday!) CELEBRATIONS are happening everywhere in April. 

 There's one set for Saturday, this Saturday, April 16th in our Langley, WA community. 

Our friend Eileen has us at an information booth

focused on CLEAN LIVING.  This is a huge step

a go-with-the-flow down stream decision for us.

I've created an EARTH DAY BLOG in time for this event.

The month of April began with that rambunctious Aries New Moon

so there is definitely a whole lot of rock and roll'n going on. 

Coming up on Sunday is the FULL MOON IN LIBRA

agitated by a full-house of planets in ARIES.

Choose your actions, keep compassion close and realize fiery action ARIES

will cause things to happen.  Decide how to use that energy.

Our gardens are cultivated and the first sign of sunflowers are poking their heads out of the soil. 

Our lovely peas are starting to see their clingers

(I made that word up ... it's those pea arms that reach out and hold on as they climb). 

Now that the 'Ole Cycle is pau, and we feel the filling

flood of Mahina in this Anahulu

it's a good time to plant food that is ROUND, or will become round. 

The Kaulana Mahina recognizes 4 Full Moons,

culminating in the 'calendar' full moon

Mahealani. 

TONIGHT is MOHALU (the night before the 4 Full Moons) 
So sorry, I caught my error a day later ... Pete is always telling me "You're always jumping ahead."  Maybe, it comes from being born pre-mature.  Auwe!
Mohalu is a night to honor KANE, Giver of Life.
Make time tonight to give thanks, say prayers for those who are vulnerable and
 in need of extra aloha (that could include you, too)
With that in mind all 4 Full Moons are verdant, abundant, auspicious moons.

Click here to  go to the wonderful on-line resource

Fishing and Planting Native Hawaiian Moon Calendar

created for the web by the 'ohana on Maui. 
Mahalo, once again Maui 'Ohana!

'OLE MOONS BEGIN TOMORROW, Saturday, April 9th, 2011

What a rambunctious April!  This is a morning with a Bachelor Buttons Blue sky, still a little cool Washington, just unfolding for us right now. I'm filling the Quonset with realigned thoughts and ideas, enjoying the heat and company of my favorite trail-walking buddy.  The lovely new beginnings growing from the on-line workshop are such great feelings.  We have planted new seeds of thoughts and beliefs here on Whidbey Island.  Believing I am on a healing journey from MCS opens up new possibilities and abundance. 

The first 4 'Ole Moons (the time during a thirty-day moon cycle where 'do nothing' is the password) start tomorrow, Saturday, April 9th.  We observe the 'Ole times by refraining from starting new projects and tend instead to repairing our gear, weeding our gardens, resting and retreating for time of rest. The next four 'Ole Moons begin in the astrological sign of Cancer.  To tap into energy of a Cancer-influenced 'Ole Moon think about and consider what the sign of Cancer means energetically:

"Cancer express the capacity to care, to nourish.  Cancer, like the womb of a woman, knows how to create a safe place in which new life may grow.  Cancer builds the web of emotional connetion that results in family...The Moon (Mahina) is the ruling planet of Cancer." - from Intuitive Astrology by Elizabeth Rose Campbell

http://www.astrology-online.com/cancer.htm

As we rest and repair our gear, I'll tune into my connection with nourishing and creating a safe place for myself and those I love.  How about you?

Much aloha,

Mokihana

If you are interested in joining our month-long CountOnTheMoon Workshops and study group email us at ssvardoATgmailDOTcom.  The April New Moon workshop is happening now; the Taurus New Moon workshop for May is in the making.

Ho'omanawanui ... Jera ... patience ... harvest

April in the woods is a blast!  A blast of unexpectedly bang on the roof blast of ice pellets.  Incredible shades of light blast.  Cool wood scented blasts of fresh air.  Dark blasts of night-time quiet.  Comforting blasts of warmth in the tiny vardo we call home blasts.  Has it been too long in coming these blasts? Have we suffered loss after loss too long?

April in the woods is a blast!  Duck waddles,  hens crow blast.  One gate, two gates, three gates. God I think we must have ten gates. Opening into, leaving behind.  All kinds of blasts from the past gates.  We have peas growing, sunflowers ready to blast out of dark lepo.  Has it been too long in coming these waddles,  crows, gates, peas and sunflowers out of the dark lepo blasts?

In another version of the story maybe.
This time the story ends with.  No not so very long.
This time we tell a different story and there's nothing so wrong.
Patience.  Long Harvest. Ho'omanawanui.  Jera.  Old words. New story. What a blast!

COUNT ON THE MOON On-Line Workshop... tap into the energy of the 'OLE CYCLES'

Pete Little and Mokihana Calizar

Invite you to join them

for an On-Line Workshop of Hope & Restoration

“’OLE MAHALO”

Based on the Ancient Traditions

Of

The Hawaiian Moon Calendar

Mokihana and Pete

Share their experiences of surviving environmental Diaspora

& offer these lessons as a model for YOU to tap into the healing energy of

the ‘Ole Cycles of the Hawaiian Moon Calendar:

the cycles of emptiness where times

of personal retreat and restoration are most potent

Starts SUNDAY, APRIL 3rd, 2011

$20.00

(See the Sidebar of this blog for more details)

Email:  ssvardoATgmailDOTcom

Mail your check or money order or cash

  (no credit cards, please)

to:

Mokihana Calizar

P.O.Box 483

Langley, WA 98260

Count On The Moon is now an active 'registration-only' study group. 
Please email us if you are interested in joining us.
Mahalo,
Mokihana and Pete

NEW BEGINNINGS: Count On The Moon Workshop in Progress, New Moon Cycle in Process

Hilo Moon (New Moon) has come with the energy of Aries and the explosion of new beginnings.  Our new on-line workshop COUNT ON THE MOON is now happening.  Nothing rushes in back there, slowly the registered folk navigate the new blog-study group and I learn how to share mana'o via an INTERNET wa'a kaulua (canoe). There's still time to register and join in this month-long workshop. 
Email me at ssvardoATgmailDOTcom to register.  There is plenty to learn, and nearly all the moons of April to go through the twelve sessions all ready for you to explore.

Creating this workshop has been and continues to be a major step  in my healing journey as Makua O'o.  Maturing into alignment with the self that Ke Akua sees, has meant I learn to honestly tend to the history I have co-created.  The gathering of pieces from my kupuna (the elders, the traditions) has allowed me to find again, the history that sustains over the long haul.  I age, and still the sticks the OO maintain me and change.  The illusions and beliefs that were either faulty to begin with or were translated with errors show up in my body, my mind and my relationships.  New Moon in Aries, I choose again and set things in stronger positions, and take responsibility for my bettering future.

It's a perfect time to lay out the o'o the tools and look at them, meditate on ways to use them to choose a life of pono.  (To find the Basic Life Tools of the Makua O'o scroll down on the sidebar to the right).  To remember or to learn where Kanaka (Hawaiians) recall their essential nature of connection with All... There is The Kumulipo.