INTERNATIONAL MOTHER EARTH DAY, April 22, 2015

Pule ‘Aina
adapted from Hawaiian Antiquities by David Malo
E ke akua, he pule ia e holoi ana i ka po’ino o ka ‘aina
a me ke pale a’e i pau ko ka ‘aina haumia
He pule ia e ho’opau ana i na hewa o ka ‘aina apau

Oh God.
This is a prayer to wash away all iniquity from the land,
to ward off and end the contamination of the land.
This is a prayer to end the mistakes done to all the land

I pau ke a’e, me ke kawau
I pau ke kulopia, a me ka peluluka
I pau a hulialana
A laila niho peku, ho ‘emu, huikala, malapakai,
Kamauli hou i ke akua.

So that the bitterness may be over.
The ground will be covered with greenery, leaves and vines,
and we may offer again our prayers of thanks to you for abundance.

Every day is Earth Day. We have twenty-four hours seven days a week; ekolu malama (three months by the Hawaiian Moon Calendar) to treat our home with love, aloha, malama (love, love, and care).

Here are just a few ideas, to juice-up that love of 'aina, moana nui a kea, ea. wai ... all that is  our Papa Hanau Moku (Earth, Ocean, Air, Fresh water). Click on the links to learn a little more.

Join LAMA's Kahea (call) to its Network ... "What's your 'ohana up to where you live, remember Papa our Earth Mother?"

CONNECT A MILLION HEARTS

LIGHT A CANDLE 

CONSIDER GOING Fragrance-Free

ASK FOR WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

... E HO MAI 

Plant trees!

((((ALOHA, PAPAHONUAMEA))))))

Na Mea Wai Wai Hawaii

"There is life in a kindly reply"
Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha

Yesterday I found an email from another Hawaiian native living not far from us . 'The beautiful bird' is living in Portland, Oregon and was searching for an 'olelo no'eau (a Hawaiian proverb). She gave me a brief idea of the reason for her asking, and then the search was on. In times past I carried a library of treasured print resources. Among those books were a basic 'ohana (family) of resources that had been passed to me from teachers, purchased from book stores, and gifted me by friends and family. The decade of travel and wandering as Pete and I simplify and cull and are asked to zen down even more quickly (MCS can do that) means that library of books is minimalized. Multiple chemical sensitivities for me includes being sensitive to and reactive to the chemicals used to print and assemble books, magazines, and other print. The loss has devastated me in the earliest times. Slowly, the loss has turned to acceptance and now it does please me that those books are with my son, my niece and others who were ready for the teaching.

Yesterday's kahea (the call) inspired me and motivated both Pete and me to find the tiny library of Na Mea Hawaii (things of Hawaii) that we do still keep with us. With concentrated effort, Pete found the tiny stack of cards printed with the collection of Hawaiian proverbs assembled and preserved by kupuna Mary Kawena Pukui. The cards fit in Pete's palm, and for many years, and through thousands of wandering miles over oceans, continent and islands those tiny cards have been a daily comfort. Kupuna Kawena, scholar and teacher is among the revered and valued human treasures of culture -- music, language and living practices -- of Na Mea Wai Wai Hawaii. I used to carry and keep close the tome of a book written by Kupuna Kawena, 'Olelo No'eau to do my work with community, used it to add meaning to a project or piece of writing that I was working with, or when I simply needed a bit of wisdom to ground me.

Yesterday's kahea and search led to rediscover the value of those beautifully worn snippets of timeless wisdom. Among them was something the young wahine Hawai`i found fitting for her purpose. So cool! The search also led me to discover that archives and electronic access to Hawaiian language, and archives of Kupuna Kawena's 'Olelo No'eau are available to those who have access to cyberspace. Aue! I have included links to a few of those electronic connections. There is power in the word and to see how a culture and language that teetered on the edge of extinction can now be accessed through electronic libraries, wow, we are indeed not in control of how life will proceed in the hands of generations to come.

Three on-line resources to access NA WAI WAI HAWAI'I:

'OLELO NO'EAU Archives Selected proverbs assembled at Leeward Community College on the island of O'ahu, Hawaii

ULUKAU (Electronic Hawaiian Dictionary) A project created by Aha Punana Leo (the Hawaiian language immersion schools of Hawaii)

The Kumulipo (The Hawaiian Sacred Texts of Creation) This one the translation done by Queen Lili'uokalani, Hawaii's last reigning queen, done during her house arrest when Americans were stealing the 'aina.

The Makua O'o practices using the o'o
"Know that wisdom is found in many places … SOFTEN THE GROUND OF YOUR BEING"

Question for clarity when making decisions … ASK

We have set a date for moving VARDOFORTWO. We're a month away and there's excitement in the air along with pollens as the trees begin their budding thing. In posts to come we will be asking our friends "Turtle" and "Pellet" about just how comfortable they are with becoming public ... part of the blogsphere. Our life as vardo builders was always contingent upon having folks who would willingly share their lives with us. Months ago "Turtle" and "Pellet" said "Yes." Kinda like marriage, or a promise to wed we have been getting to know each other in new ways. These friends have been in my life for more than thirty years. We met when we were young hippies, in a time when revolution was evolutionary ... we built businesses together, drank beer together, designed futures together, raised babies together. And now we contemplate and anticipate growing old together.

Over at VardoForTwo a commenter asked about our cooking arrangement once we are full-time vardo residents. "Will we build an outdoor room for cooking?" The answer is "no" we will share the large kitchen in "Turtle and Pellet's" woodsey home near Hood's Canal in Washington, and set up camp cooking in the woods near VARDOFORTWO. The specifics of our lives together with our old friends will evolve as we park ourselves on their acreage. We have laid preliminary groundwork for a shared life, and have one more visit-and-chat time scheduled two weeks before VardoForTwo is hitched to the flat bed truck we have reserved.

There are many, many questions to ask and answer, discuss and consider in any journey and if you are a partnered reader you know how relationships need nurturing to flourish. That is our fondest wish for our relationship with "Turtle and Pellet." That it will receive nurturing and flourish... It's a fine day to send that wish into the collective current of good. With every bit of star power and positivity that wish is made.

And so, it is. Love to the Turtle and Pellet ~ ~

Question for clarity when making decisions … ASK

I've been doing a lot of asking lately. I made a trip north and east to see my environmental doc this morning. Over the past few weeks the number of exposures and the adjustments to make as I recuperate from them have brought me to my knees. It's difficult to know how my body and mind are doing. So as if unceasingly I have been praying, asking, talking with Ke Akua and the `aumakua (all that is and all the ancestral gods who have their role in the order of things). "I believe I have a place here, so what exactly is that? Is it changing? You know why I'm here. So, could you help me out here because I'm not sure of anything right now." This is the sort of talk I'm hearing myself say ... in the bathroom, along the beach, while I drift in and out of sleep. My dreams time has been busy, the experiences varied ... I'm working in my dreams, 'working for a living' kind of work; something I have not been doing for a very long time in the waking state. I feel the reward of the work. Then, I'm off to revisit old friends, people who I have let go since MCS has become an anger-inducing wedge in relationships once supportive and restoring. Even in the dreams the relationships are different. Looking like something, and yet it isn't that way at all. Dreams give you that omnivision if you notice. When I open my eyes from dreaming I have to consciously draw my spirit and my energy back into my physical body. Whewww...what a busy night!

The traffic was heavy over the 520 bridge, a woman in her Land Rover stalled on the bridge. Poor woman, what a back-up one car creates on a two lane road. Fortunately, it is a glorious clear though cold Seattle day. Waiting in traffic on the bridge the immense size of Lake Washington reminds me why I could not understand the difference between 'lake' and 'ocean' when I first arrived in the Northwest, a girl of twenty-six. I was a few minutes late for my appointment, but I had called to tell Tiffany I was sitting on the bridge. My appointment with Dr. B was about forty-five minutes long. I need the time. My list of questions were written on a medium-size brown paper bag. A tip for my exquisite sensitivity to most paper, I thank Leslie from The Oko Box Blog for that! It it difficult to sort out what is happening to my body ... the organs, especially the liver works so hard to detoxify environment as well as toxic emotions. I began at the bottom of my list and asked about everything from "How do you determine whether the liver is keeping up?" "I'd like to coordinate what I do with Chulan, my NAET practitioner? What do you think?" One by one Dr. B answered my questions and offered options that fit within my frame of reference...they resonated with me. Late in the year, last year I asked readers on VARDOFORTWO how they handled medical issues; ie. how they deal with insurance, hospitalization, health insurance. It helped me to see that these issues are not easily dealt with when you have MCS, or not for that matter. Today, I asked Dr. B to write me a letter that affirmed my health condition, as a woman with MCS who would need to be accomodated within the health/hospital setting. "I'll include that they consult with the patient (you) because you know what you can or cannot handle." Dr. B was clear he'd include that sentence in the letter.

During the past five years, Pete and I have been through extreme situations: fleeing from pesticide incidences, living in a car for months, being harassed by a cop for sleeping in the car, and on and on. Learning to adjust over and over wears a being done. Building a safe home in addition makes the process even more challenging. Through it all, my foundation has been a spiritual connection that links me to something bigger than myself. I know it has kept me alive.

There are some things spirit must depend upon from the physical world, and sometimes that means I ... the ego attached to me must be 'tricked' out of control long enough to accept an option outside the comfortable one. Maybe. Five years ago I stopped taking the last of the prescription drugs I used for decades. It was for high blood pressure. There were many reasons the drug was not right for me, and so I worked with alternatives. MCS took all my attention and focus during those five years. This morning, I knew ... my dreams, my ringing ears, my inner center and my list ... it was time to re-think the quality of my choices. The blood pressure reading said "Yup, your blood pressure is way up there. Do you think you'd like to try medication?" Dr. B asked. We talked about the choice he suggested, a newer medication (I'll explore it on the internet, and get Chulan to muscle test it, too). He wrote the prescription, I took it, along with a prescription for oxygen that will be available to me when the air is difficult.
I'm weighing all the discussion and queries posed. I asked for clarification, and got a lot from the appointment, and soon I can make a few more decisions.

Question for clarity when making decisions … ASK

We have taken to a new way of using the space in the basement apartment here in White Center. The Kitchenette is our primary safe haven, the space where we sleep. It also serves as place where we set-up the cooked food prepared outside; we watch movies here and catch Ugly Betty on Thursday nights. The trusted Sony laptop works in The Kitchenette as well. Beyond the green flannel and Denny Foil wall there are other rooms. These are the rooms that store our stuff, grow our wheatgrass, and serve as Pete's research and investigate center. The bedroom has become Pete's office, a place where he can go when I am sleeping, meditating, writing and doing my thing. If the bedroom door is open I hear the evolving style of questioning my dear man is learning. There are so many hours of phone calls recorded on that cellphone of his. Throughout the year of preparation and building our tiny mobile home, Pete has searched and queried dozens of craftsmen and specialized builders. Through his phone contact he discovers a lot. I have listened to many of his calls, and yet I'm glad I am beyond ear-shot for most of his calls. He always reviews the information he discovers from these sessions and lays out more questions for us to consider.

When the curved copper roof idea went up in smoke, we thought we'd just 'find another roofer' to do the original project. It hasn't worked that way. The process of questioning for clarity has broadened the search, and now the path seems to be bending back upon itself. An old bid left as not quite right is looking more attractive five months later. More shall be revealed, and then there's Mercury appearing, in the heavens, in a retrograde (backward) path. The winged messenger, Mercury, the communicator and instigator, in retrograde can stall a project, or allow for a re-think on a project. It seems appropriate that our original idea of a copper roof that morphed and tripled in price to $6,000 , goes through a re-view and re-do. Winter slows nature down. In spite of our willfulness even us humans slow down to consider using our time to clarify before making decisions. I admit sometimes I don't like the waiting or the process of asking so many questions, and then real life shows up and has its way with me ... lucky us.

Question for clarity when making decisions … ASK

I have had vivid and varied dreams during the past week. Learning to live with the reality and limitations of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities is at best complex; learning at this stage in life is a vaudeville review running non-stop. Sleep is one of the gifts that can restore us from the doing of the day, and for me dreams have offered alternative universes, and sometimes activity that provides answers to many questions from my chaotic days. The week past has been difficult for us, the physical symptoms of living through exposures is unpredictable, and when they are predictable it makes it no less difficult. Even with the years of being part of the 12-step programs of Al-Anon where I heard for the first time that I AM POWERLESS OVER Alcohol, alcoholics and just about everyone and everything, I do not go easily into surrender. One of the odd yet unrelenting benefits of MCS is its inseparable connection with the act of surrendering. A fine line dots the border between surrender and giving-up. In 'the rooms' we hear that surrendering is the first step in letting go to let the god of ones' understanding take over. For me, I did not see the difference between turning life over to this higher power, and simply chocking it ALL in. "Beam me up and out of here ... enough already!" Is that a declaration of surrender or giving-up?

I consider the events of recouping and recovering from the effects of over-exposure to the environment on a system like mine and recognize several opportunities for a 'better next time.' I get that asking for help from the god of my understanding sooner rather than later saves me a lot of strain. Asking sooner does not spare me from grief. With more life, I see that grief is a normal and necessary process and living with recurring illness includes grieving in small and large ways. Last night's dream is worthy of my recounting: I was in a thrift store and I was having a lot of fun. Thrifting was one of my favorite pass-times in a life not too long past. In my day-light life I no longer have the luxury of being in stinky thrifty shops. The dreamtime allows all. I tried on carts filled with dresses, swimsuits, coats trying on garmets that defied season and reason. At least once during my night at the thriftshop it occurred to me that none of those thing were really BEAUTIFUL AND ESSENTIAL. No matter, the enjoyment was what filled me. Smells were of no account. The thrifting went on for what seems like hours. And then, the tide came in. From where did the tide or floods come? It was my dream, my flood. I scrambled to find my purse, my wallet, money, my identity. My passport. All gone. I moved on, and must have decided to keep shopping because in with the tide came fist-fulls of money. "Ah, this will cover it." The floods kept coming, and yet it never rose high enough to cover me. Just before I woke Pete showed up. I told him of my losses. He told me I'd been in there for fifteen hours, and it was okay ... we left, I woke up.

"Wow! I had to relieve my self of the night. Shook myself with a sense of relief and acknowledgment of yet another view of loss and release. I didn't need any of the stuff, and yet I loved the frivolousness of a girlie thing to do. In the dark early hours of morning I felt the answer to my prayers to have the life I have known before. One of the answers, at least for now is, okay, dream it and let it go. Tide in, tide out.