Soften the ground of your being and Connect the Dots

I was sitting on the futon last night.  Dinner was made and Pete was in the Quonset washing up from his day of soldering pipes for the bathhouse and generally filling his day with doings.  He would serve up the curried lamb and butternut squash soup and pour it over the fluffy red rice and together we would move into one of the simple pleasure routines of enjoying a movie on the DVD with the evening meal.  Sitting there in that midpoint of a day, I checked in with myself and thought to answer the question, "How or what are you feeling?"  Content was one of the answers, but there was more.  Something else was attempting to connect the dots within me.  Not sure of what puzzle was there for me.  I just sat and breathed.  Something about getting older; something about noticing the empty space; something about being where we are now blank spaces and dots with many lines connected yet other lines yet to be. 

Time passed, the curry was warm though a bit runny it was satisfying.  We watched the  movie THE OWL MAN, an odd and simple story about being human, and about friendships and being something that is human-animal-and angel.  The pace of the movie complemented the day including a talisman word, and name, that is popping up often:  Grace. Two characters in the movie are named Grace and the space between them ... the space between the connection between those characters is an elegant example of art in film and art in an ordinary and extraordinary life.  Some time during the evening before we went to sleep a conversation between Pete and me led to my earlier experiences during the morning.  My harvesting adventure and a brief meeting with another young and vibrant woman in our community finally connected the dots that tickled at me.  "I have been those young women," I told Pete.  "Been there done that,"  Pete added.  Yes, I have been that young energetic beautiful woman in the community innovative and inspiring the older among the town with new ideas.  Even as I write this morning, I can see that dark-haired young bodied me who was still called "Yvonne" making calls and playing with the energy of possibilities. 

Aging and connected with more dots than I could have imagined as a dark-haired, young bodied me, I feel the sorrow, note the missing parts of dreams that were illusions though not so at the time.  The softened parts of my being did not get that way without many episodes of hard-headedness and bumpy roads, but they do soften.  My joints call for something I never knew to name as a solution:  cod-liver oil.  The chemical injury and sensitivities to my system ask that I use both sides of my page tapping into my intuition when logic simply does not have enough dots to satisfy me.  Makua O'o ... this blog and my journey as elder in the making fills with dots that go off the page, often.  So many ways to connect, so many stories to tell.

Time for more tea.  A hui hou. 

Rosh Hashanna and the Mango Stick

"... Last night the stars were loud, I was obviously excited about the prospect of my first (solo) harvesting outing. Pete and I made a fruit gathering stick, back in Hawaii we'd call it a Mango Stick for pulling down the mele mango high up in the tree. We used a long weathered bamboo pole that I used to stake up my generous fence filled with peas. Thanking the pole as we fashioned the wire clothes hanger into a hoop, the way to make such a humble yet efficient tool came from a place long forgotten: when was the last time I'd made a Mango Stick? When we were kids in the valley you knew when in the neighborhood would have a Mango Stick if you weren't the family that did. Aunty Lily, Mrs. Pung. They would have that tool or could help you make one. As I talked Pete through the process a part of me ageless or timeless saw the substitute for a flour sack to catch the fruit. The too-small-for-me tee shirt that is too nice to pass along was perfect. The neck of the tee shirt just the right side to circle the hoop made from the wire hanger. The plastic ties we use for all manner of fastenings found yet another useful engagement: they secure the tee shirt to the hoop and close off the sleeves to create a colorful and functional Fruit Stick..."

To ready the whole story CLICK here.

Playing with the Po of Mahina

"Woman in the Moon" Bruce Lennon

"Two seasons make up the Hawaiian Year, Kau is the dry season, Ho'oilo is the wet season.  As I write from the Quonset hut in the woods here in the Pacific Northwest it feels like Ho'oilo has begun.  It is Fall, the Fall Equinox celebrated a few days/po ago, marking Ho'oilo's beginning and the start of Makahiki preparations.  In my crisscrossing life where my Hawaiian roots ground me and the contemporary requirements spin me like a windchime, I have consciously commited to studying time via my Hawaiian roots though cyber-explorations of the Hawaiian Moon Calendar.  Six months of workshops concluded as the Muku the moon ended the month.  I have pulled the cyber-explorations called the "Wa'a Workshops" out of the water for Makahiki. Those were serious voyages with a few wahine (women) ready to engage a crisscrossing of time.  Now, I wish to play a bit with the knowledge gained and have some fun with the Po of Mahina..."

Link to the rest of here to see how an old woman (a makua o'o) keeps playing.

Fall Equinox and Po Mahina

Makali'i

Friday, September 23nd marks the Fall Equinox on the Planet.  I used to think the Equinox was always on the 21st day of September, but that is not the case.  Now that I am tracking time with Mahina, and try to integrate the practices, observation and ceremonies with Mahina in mind, there is more incentive to notice both the detail and the vagueness of time.  It's weird, I know, to say something is both detail and vagueness.  But then there's the example of looking up to find Makali'i (small eyes, or the constellation The Pleides).  To find Makali'i it really is easier if you blur your vision or look for the vagueness of the multiple cluster.  Like reading words based on their shape, some children will see the word as shape for example the word "Boy" has a shape ... like a shoe.  If a child is a shape reader, she will see the shape of the word 'Boy' and her body-mind will lassose in a memory of the sound and shape of the word, before she is able to say "B."  An intuitive learner, that reader's style was once as unacceptable as being a lefty. 

I've been taking my self on a mini sabattical of writing:  not writing for a day when it's not an 'ole day is a sabattical.  There was an absence of drive to write, and a lot of processing the emotional tide of a season in shift.  Fall is both a beautiful visual season and an emotional trigger for me, and I have had to re-tire, and re-train my mind and spirit to a newer version of the season.  A very real mini celebration has been in the making.  It's kinda like having time stretch in all directions at once and stretch as well the emotional restrictions I have applied to myself.  I think my study of tracking time via my ancestor's vessel of Papa Huli Lani (the foundation of viewing the turning of the heavens) at 63 years has softened the ground of my being as its meant to be softened as makua o'o.(see the sidebar for the basic tools of the Makua O'o).  On the workshop blog Wayfinding with Mahina, I wrote about the messiness of intuition and found my way through the softening ground of my being as it relates to time.  Here, with this blog, I note the way the Fall Equinox has seemed to move further away even as I think it ought to be closer.  It's that old control addiction that I have to try to nail things down so they don't leave me.  It has never worked, and I discover the Saturn the ruler of time, keeps giving me chances to learn about time in multiple ways.  Yes, paying a bill on time is best.  Yes, sometimes a full moon is full for more than one night. 

This Fall Equinox Pete and I have talked about making celebration(s) of gladness and thanks to the many who have helped in the harvests of our lives.  One person in particular is on our list.  He is Chef Charlie Snakelum, and is the Muckleshoot  tribal leader of one of the First People of Whidbey Island.  When I look around this community I see and feel the absence of the First Ones.  I see few names that ring with the sound of their culture, and the education available to the public regarding the culture of origin is still mournfully absent of reality.  A few weeks ago we did discover Chief Charlie Snakelum because we took a drive to Whidbey Island State Park and sat to listen to a free lecture on Ebey's Landing National Historiacal Reserve "past meets present in a working rural landscape."  We love to walk the stretch of beach on Ebey's Landing and I have found great comfort in those walks.  The woman who spoke at the lecture that night at the park could give me little information about where the tribes are today; who are the tribes.  She knew to identify and make note of the Block Houses found in the settlements and spent time telling the small mostly senior-aged audience that the Block House was a house of protection against the hostile 'Indians.'  I cringe when I first saw the Block House in Coupeville, and cringed as I heard her describe it that night.

Two other people at that lecture session were friends we know from the community.  Over the weeks, I have spoken with them about the tribal community on Whidbey and in particular have asked for guidance in finding where Chief Charlie Snakelum is buried.  Three times, I have attempted to find his burial site.  three times I have been vague in my approach.  Last time we got closer than ever, but a'ole.  I asked for a few more directions a week ago, and was told it took our friend thirty years to find the site.  This time I think we have enough information to get there.  With the Fall Equinox two days, two po away, the gathering of makana (gifts) appropriate for one chef of First People from this place we call home, become more within reach.  There must be pule, a prayer, Oli Mahalo.  A gift, that will come to me as well.  Like looking for Makali'i.  Focus broadly and there  they will be.  Fall Equinox is a time for celebration in many cultures.  In ChinaTown, moon cakes filled with the seeds of harvest will be (are) being baked and sold.  My mouth waters at the thought of them.  Makahiki Season starts after Fall Equinox. 

And for you, who and what will you honor and celebrate with prayer, and gifts on the Equinox?

Stories for the storyteller

Mahealani was brilliant in the early morning sky.  By the clock on the computer it was 3:30.  My internal moon calendar was as full as Hina was bright.  There were emotions that needed to be tended, and a shift in perspective required.  In addition to being minutely attuned to the effects of the Heavens in relation to planting, harvesting and fishing, the ancient and traditional practices of Na Po Mahina (the nights of the moon) are a personal tool of alignment and access the spiritual clockwork as surely as a sextant connects the dots for navigation.  This morning, I woke to old symptoms of physical and spiritual distress wanting to be realigned and released.  The seasons are shifting here in the woods in maritime Pacific Northwestern America.  The seasons are also shifting in Na Po Mahina, as Makahiki approaches.  For someone like me who crosses time to make sense of things, I must depend on my navigational skills to build time bridges back and forth, criss-crossing ke'ia and kela (here and there) for the stars that matter.  So many billions of lights out there, which are the meaningful ones, that's the key.

I woke to Mahina's bright reflection jittery but knowing I could find my grounding cord if I simply did not let the disarray of energy dramatize a signal.  JOTS my cat is often a messenger, and this morning she was just that.  Back from a night of hunting, the bright Mahealani moon is as much a spotlight on her movements as it is an aide to her pursuits.  She knows when it's time to settle in, curl up and enjoy the dark shelter of a warm pillow.  Each time she returns I give thanks that she made it through a time.  We chatted, cuddled and soon the ball of black furr was sound asleep.  Alone with the early morning Full Moon, I went to the sacred writing space where I go to write story with two others.  Seven months ago I wished for a space to write with others.  Slowly I put my wish into a bowl of intensions and nurtured the wish.  This morning, I reread the piece of writing I did over the week-end, read the responses to the writing, and also read the work of my two writing partners.  During the months of writing together we have created safe space to become lazer writers.  The kind of story-maker, story-teller that cuts through without marring the landscape of internal and external muscles; the muscles that sometimes pretty up a rendering.  What I needed was all there for me in that small and sacred space where story comforts the storyteller.

Each of us had written about the same 'tickle line' and crafted story that mended and criss-crossed time.  None of us are younger than 60 so we are a ripe-fruit bunch, all women.  I wrote about the gift of accepting the life that is the one I live, now.  The tools of stars, sky and moon found their way into the words that bridged my rebellion with this morning comfort.  Through the writing I find there are bits I miss or mis-read in my past and wish to amend with the Universe and my relations.  I wish for things that cannot be, but I wish them anyway.  The symptoms of feeling out-of-sorts, I accept as one more version of a story that might just want to be cast again:  throw the Runes again, and see what comes.  In safe spaces, even a grand ship, an ocean crossing wa'a can tether sails ripped by the winds and after repair the journey continues. 

I wish that I had been schooled firsthand in the traditional practices, but I was schooled in other things and they help me find my way anyway.  While fishing for a way to continue inspite of my lack, I found two old Maui storytellers with stories to tell.  I link to their mo'olelo below.  Uncle Charlie Maxwell, I had opportunity to meet and be with when Pete and I lived in Iao Valley.  Lyons Naone III, I don't know.  both have firsthand practices to share.  Maybe there's something worth your further exploration.

LINK TO "Uncle Charlie" Maxwell's website here:
http://www.moolelo.com/
LINK TO Lyons Naone III's reprinted articles here:
http://www.northbergen.k12.nj.us/1817201019173122493/lib/1817201019173122493/_files/Hawaiian_Moon_Calendar_and_Ways_of_the_Practitioners.pdf

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?

WELCOME BACK, PARSIPPANY Reader!

So glad to see you back on the Map.  Hope all is well with you and your people!

M & P

New anahulu, new view of an old issue ... laundry

The new anahulu, Anahulu Poepoe begins today and Pete and I are back from a short and sweet ferry ride across the Puget Sound.  Whidbey Island, where we live, is 60 miles long with a ferry landing on its south end and a bridge over Deception Pass at its north end.  Our wooded homestead is in Langley, on the south end of the island and just a short drive from the ferry landing.  We don't do this ferry ride, together, very often, but today was one of those times.  We had errands to do and worked in a brief visit with an old friend.  One of the things on the list of do's was checking on used washing machines.  That is a chore not easily managed considering juggling the chemical sensitivity to accumulated chemicals used in machines; and the long-off-gassing time involved in buying new and plastic parts in washers that are less than a year old or new.  The hurdles go on and on, and Pete was once again involved in the hurdling.  His discoveries led to several good-to-know tips to add to our new view of an old issue of doing laundry:

1. Rubber and plastic parts.  The water-efficient front loading washers are loaded with rubber and plastic parts.  These parts are absorbant and will soak up the chemicals used by previous owners.  Decontaminating these parts is difficult (possible!) but also very time-consuming and/or expensive.  In addition to the chemicals sometimes these rubber parts (including hoses and the gaskets around the door) get moldy.  Decontaminating will need to be done, and there are no guarantees when you're done with the processes.
2. Handling old machines.  BEWARE!  The scents remain in the rubber and that's what got to Pete when he was doing his washinging-machine hurdles.  We carry a decontamination first-aid spray called PUREAYRE for this sort of episode, and it helped to neutralize Pete's smelly hands (sorta).
3. Cost.  One galvanized top-loading machine with less rubber and less gadgetry (non-computerized mechanism) was priced at $350 before tax.  It's a scratch-and-dent new washer so off-gassing would be an issue. 
4. New Washers.  Start at $500. 

I don't often post about the details of our tiny space living, since I closed the door to VardoForTwo (our building the Gypsy wagon blog).  But this new week, and new experience with an issue that most folks consider an everyday 'usual' is just not 'usual' for us.  Seems we are  ... headed in the right and positive direction even with the discoveries made during the washing-machine hurdle event today.  That's always good news.  We may need to reconsider and explore a larger version of my hand-washing approach.  That would be fine, if the message move us that way.  There are options and we have a very cool sheltered space in the making where we can work these options through.  One of those options is called a JAMES WASHER.  It's pricey but maybe a version of it could work for us.  The other possibility is that a perfect-for-us electric top loading machine is out there and we just need to be where it is at the perfect time.  Here are a couple picture of the JAMES WASHER.

James Washer today, around $500 before shipping

Back in the day (date?) when a copper tub version was $150

Laundry Tales:  Any homesteaders or off-grid families with experience using a JAMES?  In the mean time, the sink and hand washing continues, and I am glad I can do the deed.  Know what I mean?  No sense of entitlement here, Alice.

I think it's time for tea? 
Right you are.
Black or herbal?

The 'Ole Moons

More than any other topic on this blog, our readers are most curious about the 'Ole Moons.  Check on the side-bar for "Most Popular Posts" and several of my 'Ole Moon posts show up.  Tomorrow, Sunday, September 4, 2011 the 4 'Ole Moons of the Anahulu Ho'onui (the first 10 moon week) begin.  We spend a lot of time and exploration with the po of Mahina on our workshop-blogs and it always amazes me that there is more to know. 

'Ole moons are the elegant placement of rest and repair times built into the wisdom of a Lunar cycle of time.  The 'oihana kilokilo (the study of astronomy and the heavens) amassed practical and quantum wisdom into the culture of the kanaka.  From that point on the Earth where horizons allow the heavens to be visible if you only LOOK, there is such abundant information. 

Our readers include several Hawaiian Island locations, and each time I view our Visitor Map and see those Island location I wonder:

• Who are you?
• Do you look for Hina in the sky?
• Do guavas grow near by?
• What's the ocean like today?
• Do you practice and live with Kaulana Mahina?

When I view the Visitor Map and see visitors and readers who come often, I ask and wonder:

• Who are you?
• Do you look for Hina in the sky?
• When I know the ocean is not nearby I wonder do you miss it or find waterways like lakes or rivers to enjoy?
• Do you practce and live with Kaulana Mahina?

Blogging allows fluid boundaries.  As the 'Ole moons begin tomorrow I just wonder about our readers, and send you thoughts of aloha. 

For more info on the 'Ole Moons click on the sidebars where 'Ole Moons show up.