Kilo ... stargazer ... observing what is

See the jet stream, and the Moon?

 The forest fires are burning in most directions around us. A friend who was once a Whidbey resident was visiting from Southern California. When he stopped by late in the evening before driving south the next day, he saw me sitting in the car.

"I'm in the car, using the AC," I waved to him and told him I'd heard him tooting his horn as he went up or down the highway along the prairie. He knows I am chemically sensitive, and the smoke is a major affector.

"It's a 100 degrees at home," he'd just spoken with his wife. "She's got the house all closed up."

Where is the Moon, and what shape does she wear?

Inspite of the murky skies, Mahina, the Moon, is present watching, pulling on the tides and all the waters on Earth including molten lava, ground waters, the sap that runs up and into the leaves and the fruit now coming ripe of the summer gardens; and the waters (blood, lymph, digestive juices) that move through us critters.

Here on the Prairie Front Pete, I and the folks of South Whidbey Tilth are busy preparing events to celebrate the ways in which community is defined. A large gathering "South Whidbey Tilth's Annual Summer Potluck" is happening tomorrow evening. This Sunday The Safety Pin Cafe will host a program of storytelling and music to recognize all the metaphoric and literal ways in which we humans are in the flow, in our place along with all creation. 

Early this morning I was stirred away to see the night sky: Makali'i (the Pleiades) was rising, constellations filled the darkness, the Milky Way spilled herself above. Yesterday the air was cleaner, easier for me to breath, perhaps because the North Wind brought the cleansing breath. For that I am grateful!

As I climbed into the futon for a little more sleep, Pete said, "Hina (the Moon) is rising."

Sure enough there from the window of the vardo's front door was the Po Lono. Soon the dark phase will find the Moon and Sun rising together, New Moon and a partial eclipse. We are training well to become kilo practitioners, and by the day and through the night we become mauliauhonua, people intimate with land, and the sky, wind, waters.

The affects of our experiences with the Canoe Families who journeyed to Puyallup are still being felt, long to be integrated as we reflect on what we have seen, heard, felt, sensed. The big red orb in the photo above is the fan given to everyone who attended Power Paddle to Puyallup 2018. In it the artist inscribed the elements of water: canoe, pullers, paddles, the all-encompassing wings of their spirit animal, and if you kilo (look) with keen attention you will see their Mountain.

I noticed this on the menu for August 5, 2018 from the Laughing Cat Cafe, here in the kitchen of the South Whidbey Tilth. (Nice one, Ed!)

"RRRRRuuUUuummmiii
a wall standing alone is useless, but put three or four walls together, and they will support a roof and keep the grain dry and safe ..."

What are you noticing in your world today?