Get fired up ... get fired up ... get fired up

That's the former Blue-sides kitchen at the end of the path

We're busy piecing together the newest version of our Quonset kitchen, transforming the small blue sided hut into a Long House blessed by Ravens. All around us the activity of the season shifting models for Pete and me: gather nuts, eat the sweet, sweet berries now, sleep early rise early. Get fired up, get fired up, get fired up ... winter's coming so get that fire in your belly now.

Life and death, short visits, long friendships. Shifting skies and solar returns. So many thoughts have been jumbling through my mind: busy innards, juggling, tossing, struggling. Across the ocean Aunty L. passes last of the female elders in my family I feel her let go of the oars and the stars call me from sleep to witness the passing ... Makali'i (The Pleiades) rising in the early morning; space for one more is made.

We're busy piecing together the Long House blessed by Ravens. A pair of the shiny black winged ones swoop and call above as Pete works at the steel corner curve. Four more feet this new extension offers us. Four feet, four years, we have been moving toward this expanded space to be with Ravens who dance and scold and watch for signs of hesitation: Forgotten have they? Forgotten have they the lessons, the habits of hesitation stilling them when all that is needed is to get fired up, fired up, fired up. It might have been the box of lettuce heads that tempted Raven to get as close as that. Or maybe, the sight of the beautiful Long House in colors just right for the shiny long black feathered-ones brought them for an even closer look.

We're busy piecing together a nest-building life that is more bird-like and animal by the day. Looking back at the choices, the situations and the cross roads where each of us individually, or together as a pair decided to go that way, do that thing now or wait till later looking back gives only so much food for moving forward or living fully in the moment. Yesterday we received word that we did not receive the grant to help us with our nest-building this winter. We are disappointed. Rejection is never easy. Other people are more desperate for help, more in need now. But the panel of decision makers were 'impressed with our upgrade plan.' Five years ago we were probably among those the decision makers would have deemed more in need. Now, we are nest-builders who have begun a time when the wildness of birds and the application of that inner fire simply fuels us to be birds.

Tomorrow evening an Audubon gathering is planned a few miles north of our nest. We hope to be there. The topic Life Among the Trees seems perfect for us.

"Learn how the trees and other plants in our local forests provide habitats for birds and other creatures, and how birds in turn shape the forest. Steve and Martha Ellis will focus on the factors that influence these forest types and the seasonal use by birds. They'll also highlight specific locations for each of these types of forest and give tips on how to find the birds among the trees."

We're busy piecing together a nest-building life among the trees in a fashion that is different than many humans; similar to birds though different, too. Not exactly a guerrilla life-style we do nonetheless live outside the box of many systems. Astrologically, I found this blog post written by Satori over on ElsaElsa to be an angle worth chewing on. This is snip of that wonderful angle from a former tobacconist.

..."With Saturn conjunct Mercury and aspecting Chiron you’re likely to run into situations where people get triggered by perceptions that bring up past wounding. Mercury sextiles Venus and both quincunx Uranus. With Mercury conjunct Saturn, this can result in snap judgements, yours and theirs. Making judgments limits your perception. When you slow down your rush to judgement and allow more time to gather your thoughts and perceptions, you allow a more complete picture to emerge. Reality is a continuum, not a moment in time cast in stone"

I particularly like the last two lines.

And finally as I flush through the days and nights since last I sat to post a ramble here, I found this marvelous example of art made from the everyday passion -- the fire within, made good in the every day. Another example of Kickstarter's viral influence on a world that really is more magic and wildness that many will allow. A couple of artists, one with a name so similar to my (last name) I couldn't help but love it are seeing America as the Trading Tortoise. Watch this for a bowl of inspiration and fire for your belly. I love this world!

Raven art credit:
Raven Silhouette clipart
from Clker.com

Listen … with your whole body … LISTEN RESPECTFULLY

R . E. S. P. E. C. T.

Sister Aretha is singing to me in The Kitchenette. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. I rock across the floor with her and dance in sock-covered feet glorious rhythm, the music takes me through the morning. My list of things to do gets done, and I have some fun. Pete's getting so close to hanging the two-piece Dutch front door. Adjustments need to be made; hanging a door is tricky. I am so lucky to live with an artist like this man. "Don't worry honey, things are going to be okay. Don't let these little things rattle you." A shim here, a shave there. He's right, I rattle a lot if left to my own devices. So, to get that rattle out I'm here at the keys taking a break from cleaning and clearing the kitchen part of the kitchenette. A nice nibble of 71% dark soy lecithin free chocolate is helping, too. I feel the welling of tears bubble and somehow they find a comfortable exit ... perhaps that is one of the exit strategies writers have always taken. Fingertips press to the shaft of the quill; then to the fountain pen; typewriter key; computer keyboard. R.E.S.P.E.C.T...

The process of moving is like hanging a door; it takes adjusting, a shim here, a shave there. We'll be moving into a smaller than The Kitchenette space and only the things we love and need will live inside VARDOFORTWO. I know those adjustments will be made, in time. Today, I focus on cleaning and clearing so I can move the table I use for sewing and cutting into the room. I clean the kitchen, sort through dishes, pots and my stack of clothes and make room. There's a progressive to this whole art project of vardo making and tiny space living. Taken out of place, or too far in advance, the art is rushed and perhaps like watercolor everything smears or become rattled. Living simply is an art project of an exquisite sort. I get to meet my old genetic memory of life with a clutter and stacker mother ... and decide if this isn't just one more of those adjustments that needs a little shim or shave. It's a journey and we love it.

We have shadow on the sidewalk so that means there's some sunshine out there. A batch of milk paint for the door can be mixed and a first coat applied to the raw oak door. It's part of the do list today, and now that I've done a bit of successful Fingertip Exit Strategy, there's room for a little more on the do list.

Hope your day is a little do, a little exit strategy that suites you and above it all, hope Sister Aretha sings a lot of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. into the day.

Aloha, Mokihana

Know that wisdom is found in many places … SOFTEN THE GROUND OF YOUR BEING

My body has become hard. Constant defense can do that. I write from the edge of the futon with a woolen sock, snipped at the toes, so it fits around my knee like a mini-legging. My old yoga belt used in my life as practitioner and teacher support that knee. I moved 'hard' and something in my old joint went another way ... maybe. I have used heat and then did the RICE process (rest, ice,compression and elevation), and the swelling is done and I can move about with care.

The ringing in my ears may be coming from the blood pressure in my body. It's very high and needs to come down. I'm giving myself, with an okay from Dr. B, a few days to see whether adding magnesium to my body ... a powder, lowers my blood pressure. If it does ... there's a solution. If not, I have a prescription for lowering blood pressure I'd start using. The first prescription medication I would use in many years. I have a health opportunity to expand my boundaries and limitations. My old thinking may have become too hard and brittle to maintain a sustaining life. Perhaps in my zeal to challenge the 'ENEMY' I have become the enemy ... so said the great prophet POGO.

I am a young to the Earth soul, with a connection to things that are out of sync with the contemporary world, including I believe, the contemporary experiences caused by chemical abuse. Fighting and defense is not working in harmony with my soul's purpose ... and yet I have a very real physical body. The challenge of the physical world tests my soul, and then there are inspirations ... intuitive harmonics.

This morning I found this inspiring writing from the Organic Consumer's Organization. It's a piece of writing that offered me a connection with today's O`o ... Know that wisdom is found in many places. The title of the work is called 'The Healing Strength of INNER ECOLOGY' it resonated with me. With the messages I'm getting lately, softening the ground of my being is where I need to be now.

Here is an excerpt from this article, with an exquisite example of how one of Earth's First People maintain the inner ecology with a tiny mouse:

The Healing Strength of 'Inner Ecology'

By Leonardo Boff
Earthcharter Commission, January 18, 2009
Straight to the Source

"In the same way that there exists an external ecology, there also exists an inner ecology, comprised of solidarity, feelings of re-bonding with the whole, caring and loving. These ecologies are umbilically linked. ...The universe is not comprised just of a gathering of objects, but of the network of inter-relations among them, becoming subjects that exchange information and become richer.

Starting with inner ecology, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the trees, the mountains and the animals are not only just there, outside. Rather, they live in us, as figures and symbols charged with emotion. The experiences -good or traumatic- that we may have had with these realities have left profound imprints in our psyches. This explains our aversion towards some, or the affinity we feel towards others...

... In the final analysis, that spiritual unconscious is the expression of the very spirituality of the Earth and of the universe that erupted through us, who are the conscious part of the universe and of the Earth.

That profound spirituality helps us understand, for instance, the exemplary ecological attitude of the Sioux nation of North America. In some of their ritual celebrations, they celebrate a certain type of beans that grows deep in the soil and is very difficult to harvest. What do the Sioux do? They use the stores gathered to eat in the winter by a species of mouse native to the prairies of that area. Without that reserve they risk starvation. When taking the beans, the Sioux are clearly conscious that they are breaking their solidarity with brother mouse, and are stealing from him. This is why they offer this moving prayer: «You little mouse, who are sacred, have mercy on me. You are feeble, yes, but strong enough to do your job, because sacred powers communicate with you. You are also wise, because the wisdom of the sacred powers is always with you. May I also be wise in my heart, so that this dark and confusing life be transformed into permanent light.» And in a sign of solidarity, when they take the beans leave in their place small pieces of pork and corn. The Sioux thus feel spiritually united with the mice and with all of nature."

Link

Mahalo Ke Akua e Na `Aumakua (thank you to the creator of ALL and the guardians of ALL)