Praising Land with Many Hands

 Across the Pacific, heading East from the Prairie Front my Ancestors the Kanaka Maoli, the Hawaiians, make note of the natural indicators and know the god Lono, the god of Sound and the bringer of the new year, Lonoikamakahiki, is active in his work. Winds, Clouds, Drumming Rains, Thunder, Rainbows of many kinds, Movement. In the ocean Kohola, the Humpback Whales fill the water with their songs, their sonic resonance. They have returned to Hawaii. The seasons are changing and the Stars in the Heavens are in one place present and observable for the kahuna to calibrate the time and recalibrate the calendar; and prognosticate the coming year.

Makali'i, the constellation Pleiades, are seven recognizable stars (though we Hawaiians name only six of them) with names of great navigators who traversed the great Pacific and reached Hawaii. Others may count up to 13 stars, I am intriqued and humored by the discourse I read during the recent live and online Hui 'Aimalama lecture given by Papahulilani, Kalei Nu'uhiwa.

"Why only 6 named navigators?" One of Hawaiians asked.

"Maybe the 7th wasn't so good." Kalei responded.

"Or maybe we leave room for other navigators," suggested someone who might know. I liked that option, a lot! Leaving room for present or future navigators who plot courses across the heavens or the ocean in their canoes (metaphor or real?).

When Makali'i rises on the horizon at Sunset in Hawaii, Makahiki Season begins, the new year comes!

Here, on the Prairie Front where we live, on an island in the Salish Sea, the indicators and the information that have made their way to me via the cybernetic oceans make a difference in the way I sense the changing season. This place is a big edge-land, a border land between the Salish water ways, the shores and the rising land that shifts to prairie.

If we attend to the many ways each Living Being is affected by the coming of Lono, the coming of a change, the change becomes more fully part of who we are.

Yesterday many hands and many people showed up to help prepare for winter on this place where Summer activities bring our community, and others who travel from their community, to gather, eat, play, shop for locally grown plant foods, listen to a ferris wheel of music and performances, and their presence feeds the land. Whether any or all the people and their dogs are conscious of how they do this, or whether there is reciprocity in their exchange of time and energy while on the Prairie Front, only they individually, and the land can know for sure.

A few years ago I wrote a medicine story Feed the Land. At the time Pete and I were in that vast in between space, considering where to move, and not knowing for sure there was another place to move to. I had forgotten about that story and revisited it here. You might enjoy the tale written just prior to the American Presidential Elections. One of the characters (in the medicine story) was named Hillary.

What was so wonderful to experience and participate in yesterday was the full and plentiful heart energy that fed the hands working at the many activities yesterday. Some worked alone, many worked in pairs or small groups or shifted from solitary work to group actions. The photographs are some of the bounty of yesterday's work. Hover over the images for descriptions.

What I do not have pictures of is the food, or the company of lunch-time eating and conversation. A pity, but don't let that hinder your imagination. The food was integral for feeding heart and hands. LUNCH is important.

"Sometimes life in the civilized world creates symptoms & situations that demand crossing borders for remedy & solutions. A massage helps, a prescription might do, but often it’s ...

Story these symptoms crave." - Feed the Land

As Halloween approaches, and our first year anniversary of living with this land the Prairie Front approaches, we leave these photographs and bits of language here to prompt story to soothe the cravings.

May your new season, your new year coming be bountiful!

xo Mokihana and Pete