`Aha Update #25 Medicine Stories and Old School Channels

The first rain in three months fell early in the morning; the sound surprised us. How quick we forget the familiar. The rain has washed dust from the Bracken already turned into her Fall dressing gown. The many spokes of Cat's Ears (Dandelion impersonators)  spangle like New Year's sparklers. Between the two images above discovered on the morning of first rain a memory pulled at my right ear. Thoughts of a sweet tale rewound in my head, congested by the leavings of smoke and ash. A medicine story of a grandmother and her grandchildren wanted to be re-read.  The internal hurricane that sloughs through me was in need of tether. Medicine stories my name for fairy tales and myth, to read them or to write them ... they shape us, they shape me.

It is Story that so often anchors me to something bigger than the struggles that seem to separate me from help. Without asking for help, we would not get it; who would know we flail.  Without knowing how to ask we congest with fear and don't see the life jacket flung our way. So this post is a thank you gift, a  mahalo nui loa kakou. Thank you dear friends and family who are holding the 'aha, being our strong rope as Pete and I navigate the uncertain but none the less vital tides of destiny. We make up the next move, or muddle through the difficulties with as much grace as possible and call on the Muse (or she pulls at my ear) for creative expression.

Through "Old School Channels" (checks in the mail and cash in red envelopes) we, you folks and Pete and I are implementing an old-fashion version of Crowd Funding. Rather then launching a GoFundMe campaign, these `Aha Updates and informal gatherings on the vardo's front  porch have become our 'crowd fund' to get us to Elsewhere. We are so very grateful for the financial gifts you have sent us to support our efforts, inspite of the open-ended outcomes with no specific destination (yet). Your comments and email messages fuel our resolve to keep our commitment to be kupuna (the elders) strong, transparent and teachable:) We have never done this version of our story and are so glad you are part of the whole. There is more to come, but for now this is necessary ... "Thank you."

What follows is a medicine story I wrote in 2016 called "A Native Fern." It's an old school kind of story with a few hinges. Real people and real places have inspired the telling and to them I give much gratitude. In particular the place, The Muliwai, is such great source of magic and with a bit of sadness I realize it has changed; characters have passed on since A Native Fern was written. All the more reason to put the story down. A few of you may have read this tale before. The wonderful part about stories is that they can be re-told, re-read, re-lived.

You will be led to the story's place and will grow there, at your pace. Links at the bottom of each segment/post will take you further. An adventure ...

"Sophie Lei Maku'e is a wife and grandmother living life suitable to her family name. If you are new to these medicine stories, they are written in doses/posts, in gentle stanzas influenced by daily life and messages that cross the borders where separation is mutable, and subject to artistic tampering.

This story, like most of the medicine stories, is born from some 'condition' in need of wholiness. How the memory of Ancestral wisdom or an oracle found in the pages of the Hawaiian Dictionary adds to what is already there; and the faith-based flow .. that is a reason to keep writing. Personal gods, guardians, 'Aumakua are always close in the medicine stories, A Nature Fern is no exception. Grandparents and mo'opuna learn together as this story unfurls, and that makes for an enchanted tale."

All our heart-felt aloha to each and every one of you. A Native Fern begins by clicking here.

Hope you enjoy the tale,
xoxo Mokihana and Pete