Are you good at waiting?

The Epic Tale of Hi'iakaikapoliopele

" Writing fiction for me is like playing in sand at the beach.  Warm water, the sound of waves, and the sculpting of sand caves and castles give me room to let the playful girl out of an all too confining skin of restrictions.  Creativity loves room to play...The story "Splinters" is my latest adventure at playing in the sand.  Through the process, and through the recording done here on my blog I take the discipline art of studying astrology to frame characters; weave in my love and ongoing appreciation for culture; and, allow my need to express the everyday in some transformative way..."

This is an excerpt from a blog post at Moon Tattoos written on February, 2012 here.  My love affair with blogging has tickled scores of stories and creations that allow me "to express the everyday in some transformative way." The time traveling novel-in-the-making "Splinters" parks for a while, and I write other stories. The gifts of internet access and blog-making lay a foundation for doing what I love. And why do I do this?

" My past is like a patch of nettles, the memories burn as I pluck them up . . .and crush them . . .and spin them  . . .and weave them into coats made out of stories. My brothers are grown, but there are others still caught beneath swan feathers and donkeyskins. And so I continue to spin, and weave, and toss those coats made of words to the air — hoping that someday, somewhere, they will set somebody free.- Terri Windling

The three sentences above are the conclusion to Terri Windling's essay "Transformations" copyright © 2002 by Terri Windling which first appeared in the expanded edition of Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales, edited by Kate Bernheimer. Windling quickly, and steadily, became my modern day heroine. I highly recommend reading the whole of "Transformation" for an inspiring read about fairy tales as remedy for life. A writer, painter and blogger come to my world thanks to the internet, Windling's novel The Wood Wife and her blog The Drawing Board are regular fueling and refueling ponds for my creativity. I visit her blog daily, and have read The Wood Wife many times. My copy of the novel is tucked in a basket under my bed along with my other notions and potions of homeo-practical magic.

Like Windling, my life and the journey-journaling as Makua O'o is a winding tale. Over and under, challenged and defeated, up and out leaping or scrambling out of ashes I weave something from nothing. The myth and stories I tell are inseparable from the kumulipo (the creation stories) of my ancestors. But, they translate and kick-off (makawalu) versions of tales that fit me today. When I come to the keys and tell the latest story I am motivated by freedom. This morning I read this at my astrologer's blog:

I intended to withdraw my energy from this blog and the boards in order to focus... It’s sort [of]the Saturn model – finish the work, before you play, but then something weird happened. I found out one of the regulars on the site had been blocked by the communist party in the country where she lives.

The variations on the theme of motivation fueled a conversation my husband and I have been having about The Safety Pin Cafe. This version of tale spinning is new for me. Born like so many of my stories there was a need to remedy an experience. I called for help, asked for permission and let the words fly! That 1-2-3 process is consistent. Now, nearly finished with the 10-doses of The Safety Pin Cafe I want to know: What's it is like to read and visit The Safety Pin Cafe? You see I'm not quite sure what the story yearns for as a conclusion. My Hawaiian storytelling genes are evolving and there's no telling what those artistic genes will do from the borders. Before tying off this lei of words, here's something that inspires my lei-making and story-telling genes. Marie McDonald, master lei-maker and kapa maker has been making lei and teaching her aloha for this art from the Waimea country on the island of Hawaii. In the quote from a 1994 interview in The Waimea Gazette, I heard something to move me i mua, forward:

"I can hardly believe what they are doing with leis today! People are so creative, really inventive and I like to think I had a part in that," she said.
She believes true artists, whatever their mode of expression, have to take the traditional and add to it, not be bound by it.
Marie likes to think of people in the year 3000 studying their past history and saying, "Well, look at the difference... this is what they were doing with leis in the 1850's, and then look what they were doing in 1950 and 2050."
"We're supposed to evolve, to grow, to get better," she said.

So back to the question and topic for this post. "Are you good at waiting?" Help me with a new twist to my storytelling.

Are you reading The Safety Pin Cafe?

Did you read the installments quickly, or did you pace the doses? 

If you are a Hawaii-born reader do you see the way the traditional stories weave and change in this story? What do you think of this?

Do you have safety pin memories of your own?

Would you visit the real Safety Pin Cafe, and hear the final installment live in a location near you?

All and any answers will add to the homeopractical application of this medicine story. I hope you'll let me know what you're thinking. Leave a comment, or email me.

mokihanacalizar@gmail.com

The 'Ole Moons begin tomorrow, so I'll be mulling things over for a few moons.

Until next time.
Bisous,
Mokihana