Tool Box, or Boxing Gloves?

Temporary tool: a step stool 

The old steps we walked for six years

Astrologically Elsa P. describes this week with these opening lines:

"Mercury in Libra will conjoin Jupiter all week. Expect people to blurt, preach their truth and think they are smarter than they are.
This situation will be exacerbated as our collective big (Jupiter) mouths (Mercury) will be fueled and intensified by the square to Mars and Pluto in Capricorn.
Now if you want to mix it up, fine. But be prepared to lose (Pluto) your social connections (Libra) and status (Capricorn) if you fail to control yourself and hit someone’s sore spot..."

Elsa continues her blog post with suggestions, and directives to her astrological workshops (many of which I have taken). I highly recommend those workshops if you have a few dollars.

Along those same lines, periodically I update the content on the page "What is Makua o'o?" 
I'm doing that now making notes using the 9 Tools of the Makua o'o to reevaluate how this recent move out of the forest and onto the gravel parking lot utilizes those tools.

"The nest of a home we built has been moved, transplanted from the wooded surroundings onto the gravel parking lot just a few yards ... just here to there. I am writing about the small and potent move turning the experiences into art, using the tools of the 21st century to explain while almost unconsciously applying the 9 tools Aunty Betty shared with me. Those tools of  kupuna in the making fit anytime, if I pause to recognize that.

1. Keep a keen sense of observation … NOTICE . Everything starts here. Noticing is not limited to what the eyes see though I am very grateful to be able to see the world with the aid of prescription lens. Sometimes, I don't put on my glasses, or forget where I left them. And then the next tool helps." (click here to read what other notes I've left on 'What is Makua o'o?')

 If you are new to this blog, the basic tools of an elder in training might be useful. A new tool instead of the boxing gloves might be a better choice. I admit, I've used the gloves as often as a tool. But at this age, my husband reminds me as he attempts to set us up with stairs to and from our golden wagon, "We can't afford to fall." The small hard plastic step stool with narrow steps and no rail has been a temporary tool, and solution as we make adjustments. Today Pete is working with his tools to reattach a version of our old wooden steps.

Just any old kind of stairs doesn't work for my highly sensitized body ... wet wood grows mold, my body collapses under mold. The old steps and rail have been washed of mold, and have been drying for the past week. It frustrates Pete to be stopped in his game; his drill is out and primed. I know it's a hard game to play this highly sensitive partnership. He blew when I mentioned the steps might not work.

He came in to apologize for his one-two punch of frustration. "I know honey," I said looking from these keys to his truly sad face. He and I have been at these cross-road so many times before. Without some tools, same tools, new tools, adjusted tools we would have split the sheets long ago.

As it is, we use the o'o (the digging sticks) or recognize the makua o'o is a maturing adult ripening over time; Pete works, I write. He rescues me, I rescue him.

If Elsa's right, refining the use of tools that work for you, for me, for us could be good medicine.