Yesterday, Today and Now

Yesterday
Took myself on an Artist's Date
Full Moons on silk almost escaped
My feet moving
Too fast ...
Should have been a clue
But I was too busy
Chewing Mac nuts and banana
While I watched
The Bugaboo Boy all growed up
Buff out his Candy Apple Red Mustang
While the tiny blonde girl preened his back,
And the Produce Guy bowed in prayer position

Today
The Market Routine
And a frenzy of worries
Spun me into a
Trip, and fall while on my way to flowers
On hands and knees I thought,
"Oh shit!"
But there was life left and
Sparrow caught in a rodent's trap said,
"You think you've got trouble."
The wherewithall helped me
spring the trap and Sparrow called,
"Freedom!"
Team MCS brought me
Ice Packs and tenderness
Ice
Rest
Tears
Trust
A walker
Ribs bruised and wrapped tight in a shawl
Now the rain falls
Turning the dry, dry grass
Musty wet.

Now

"To be up to date, you’ve got to move past what’s usual. Anything that’s chugging along on old tracks is ripe for a shakeup." - Satori writing about this week

That's all. The last blast. Now for LUNCH.

Improvisational Life: "Riffing"

"... I judged what I had played (as wrong). Miles (Davis) didn't." - Herbie Hancock

If I could redo parts of my life, I would.

Which parts would that be?

Well to start, I'd sit on that old piano bench and let Ma teach me to play the piano.

In my young memory, and those that I have hoarded until now, it was my mother's impatience that turned me off to being taught . Maybe that was true. But, it's also more than possible I was the impatient one and rather than staying put I moved on; with little faith in making music part of my magic that gift would pass to my son, instead. His music is with the strings, and his voice, but I have a vivid memory of him sitting with his Tutu Lady on a piano bench.

I chewed up that judgment and impatience and swallowed it down, down, down. Fortunately, time has been kind to me and I have opportunities to improvise with that old chord. If you follow the link embedded in "Herbie Hancock"   you'll find a wonderful thread of conversation, social media-style. One of the magnificent examples of what those platforms can offer in the world of communication because someone began riffing, tinkering with the mathematical formulas that turns x's and o's (or is it pluses and minuses?) ON or OFF. I'm slow and infrequent in my use of social media, but a rabid blogger and a grateful benefactress because some of my friends play the broad social media game.

The video my friend Steve shared on Facebook is turning switches on for me. I feel my internal train- works switching tracks. Applying the principles and examples of music in my life Faith has a place in my life. I wait. I sit on the bench. I play with situations that come up, and see how to use Beginner's Mind (or call it what you wish) to tinker.

Years ago I began a writing practice using the books of Julia Cameron, starting with her classic The Artist's Way.  I filled dozens of wide-ruled notebooks with long hand written Morning Pages, three-pages at a time. I took myself on weekly Artist's Dates and began consciously including a long walk to complete the Cameron committment to creativity. The practice works, just as I learned while I was in the rooms of Al-Anon, if you work it.

Cameron's influence, along with Natalie Goldberg's Wild Mind helped me develop my writing practice and years of blogging, dozens of medicine stories, and a live storytelling venue have grown from that investment though I don't consistently write three hand-written pages first thing every morning. But, as a gift to me, and my North Node in Taurus, I began the full deal practice again on September 1st. I'm investing in my inner resources, remember to build my self-esteem from the inside rather than looking outside for that energy.

This post is a expression of my Culture of Gratitude. Yes, it is important to be grateful for the gifts that come unbidden. Like the presents of Hawk, Pueo, Raven, Gravenstein apples and Walnuts, Swallows and Hens, Clouds, Stars, Sun, Moon and Wind there is abundance if I just start with them before noting the lacks and the losses. And, to Steve and JT, a big mahalo for the gifts you offered in "stretching the envelope" ahead of the curve and before I knew how big and long-lasting they would prove to be. Today is a great day to sit on the bench and improvise a good life with what comes up.

Mahalo nui!
Mokihana

Massaging the North Node in Taurus (Mine)

"... You may feel tired of journeying all around the world, or even your environment, to search for a true feeling of self-esteem, currency, empowerment, and self-value. All these things, in your past, came from without yourself, and thus if they were taken away, could give you a sense of dis-empowerment..." Interpretation of the North Node in Taurus

Yesterday was Labor Day in America. I am married to a Class One, real kind, long-time laborer and I was born to a family of labor with a heavy equipment operator (bulldozer) father. It does not escape my awareness, this labor-connection, that led me to partner with a man who knows how to work.

Almost ten years ago Pete and I had finished building a small wagon we imagined was possible and with many details to research and physically put together we had a new beginning. A real home was created. Over those years I have written many, many blogs and blog posts to describe the physicality and emotion journey of life in a wheeled home living with long-term illness. Yesterday, between weeks of smoke-filled skies, a break in the challenges gave us a window of opportunity to re-fresh and re-paint our sweet home.

The quote that begins this post comes from a new writer on the astrology blog ElsaElsa. The writing is one of twelve posts focused on the North Nodes throughout the astrological signs of the zodiac. Regular readers to my blogs know I am a life-time student of astrology and weave what I am learning and applying to life into much of what I blog. 

Massaging the North Node in Taurus is what's happening for me today. The insight and clarity provided in this article is golden. I appreciate the fresh approach to a topic I have long studied. Unlike the study of celestial bodies: the planets, the sun's placement, the moon's placement and the relationship (angles of ease or challenge/aspects) between them; the Nodes of the Moon are a mathematical point. To those of us who study astrology as a life navigational tool, the Nodes offer a spiritual element to growing, and I enjoy the potential that comes from considering the possibilities offered through interpretation.

"What to make of the astrological North Node? First, let’s talk about the technical parts of the astrological North Node. The North Node is not a planet. And, it is not a house, such as the twelve astrological houses that were set up. It is a mathematical point where the moon’s orbit intersects with the ecliptic. The same can be said of a person’s South Node sign. To simplify, your North Node is in the opposite sign, and house, of your South Node." (Click here to read more.)

As we physically walk into the newest September, here on the Prairie Front, a helpful bit of guidance comes my way and I find a place to patch a physical or emotional puka a hole, a tear, a missing piece in my self-worth. It's so important at this stage of our growth to recognize how resource-FILLED I am, how my effort in the everyday builds my esteem. 

Anonymoushermit continues her interpretation on the North Node in Taurus with, "Your confidence, self-value, and ‘currency’, will be better off coming from yourself, and your own hard work, rather than from someone else’s hard work. Someone else’s value cannot replace yours. You are you, and other people can’t compare. This is precisely where your state of mind needs to be. There is a need to realize that although someone may be a faster runner than you, they can’t fix a car the way you do. You need to realize that everyone has value, especially yourself. Even if someone was multi-talented, it doesn’t take away the fact that you are a useful, valuable, human being. You are useful to somebody, a place, or a movement.

Work is a must in this lifetime..."

When we chose to use milk paint from  Homestead House Paint there was so much to learn about finding, using and making adjustments to the process of living chemical-free and toxic-free. The challenges, the learning have tempered me: I had to apply what I researched into practical application. The picture above is the paint mixing (my job) necessary to make Pete's work of brushing the mixture onto the wall flow. Working in slippers (those are my short little toes up above) and Pete in barefeet must have given a grounding effect because the wagon glows golden!

An old Osterizer blender with a thick glass cannister, bags of milk paint stored and toted around with us, a long old bamboo stick for stirring, and a pot of room temperature water, a sunny day, and two long-seasoned makua make the most of Labor Day, 2018.

The wall Pete worked on was the most exposed surface: a wet and wind-swept winter battered this wall, removing almost all the beeswax that was rubbed into a dried milk painted wagon. It was necessary to get a fresh coat of paint, and soon a layer of beeswax on before the season shifts to cold and wet again. A light sanding before Pete painted along with masking the edges of the window trim was part of the prep-work.

This is probably a couple hours later. Pete kept going till all the milk paint I mixed was gone while I took myself out of the sun and into the kitchen to get dinner going.

A clean plate that was filled with beautiful roasted locally-grown root vegetables and salmon dinner with a pot of wild rice and short-grain brown rice stirred with slices of kale, a side of fresh avocado and a freshly picked Italian plum. A hearty meal for the laborers. A meal I loved making.

"I wanna know what you're going to call your restaurant?" Pete asked as we cleaned up from supper.

Without skipping a beat I answered, "The Safety Pin Cafe." 

"Of course," nodded Pete.

In the conclusion of the astrological interpretation that began this post, the writer suggests: "North Node in Taurus may ask you to be practical and realistic. If you do get rich in this lifetime, it will be from your own hands. Take care of the mundane, every day, things. You must learn to love yourself even if you aren’t as tall, rich, beautiful, or ingenious, as others... One lesson of North Node in Taurus is to value oneself, as oneself. Not to change oneself to make others value you more. ‘I am me, nothing more, nothing less.’

I feel that Taurus North Node relaxing into herself. I remember to exhale as I edit this piece, listening to the banging hammer (Pete's) working on the storage shed that needs to be patched before the winter rains. At the same time the South Node in Scorpio is calmed of her natal intensity and I appreciate the work I do here at the keys to paint the pictures of life from that small golden wagon of mine. It's ours, that wagon and the work of making a life from it is equally the work that I do.

A massage, now that sounds good, feels good. Would love a real hands-on one, it's been a long time.


Where is your North Node? Do you consider it in your life navigation?

Mana'o 'Ulu

"We learned from our Fijian 'ohana that 'ulu trees that produce double fruit off of a single branch is a natural indicator of an upcoming year full of hurricanes." - Papahuli Lani, FB

I wrote Papahuli Lani and asked for permission to use that quote here. She said, "Sure. We don't really know if it's true. But we're going to find out."

That was a few days ago, and now? Hurricane Lane has been reclassified as a Tropical Storm now,  present in its many manifestations: Heavy rains and wind, but not hurricane force elementals.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, the smell of smoke continues to fill the atmosphere, but the first rain is falling in a very long time.

The forest fires rage, and keep me mostly vardo-bound. This VOGMASK helps with the smoke and ash. It's not as good as a respirator, but the respirator I tried is mostly plastic and made me sick(er). I have 02 tanks of all sizes to help when breathing is difficult. Somethings I try don't work. Others do. Just like the message, or mana'o of the breadfruit.

I've been trying to write this piece for a week. It's been much longer, and then it changed. It was shorter and different, and then I accidently deleted it. This is what remains today.

The internal weather conditions have been much like the extreme cycles happening on the outside. Issues have stirred us up, questions with no clear solutions dangle.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." - The Serenity Prayer

There's not much I can do to change the weather, immediately; or take sweeping action to affect the large and century's-long issues of things like "Race" or "Decolonizing" my internal clockworks. But, I can notice when those large issues affect my internal weather -- as it has been doing-- and let the courage to change me take place over time.

While that courage, the process of moving from thinking about those big issues, moves me toward my target there were Fava Beans to harvest before the rain comes and sets splotches and mold on the singular success of our first garden.

Pete was out in the Market area covering picnic tables and the stage in case we get more rain today and tomorrow morning.

These are some of the things we can do, so we did them.

The natural indicators that Papahuli Lani describes in the opening quote is one of many lessons Kalei Nu'uhiwa is teaching us through the work she and the group of Pacific Island practitioners, Hui 'Aimalama are committed to. The goal is to 'teach the masses.' Teach the masses to recognize the natural indicators of weather, plant growth, ocean growth, stars and planet positions, and most importantly the calendar of the Moon ... Hawaiian style. Kaulana Mahina, or the Hawaiian Moon Calendar is based on the tracking and noting of the phase of the moon from ones' place on the Earth. My place on Whidey Island, from the Prairie Front, is different than your place at the Clinton Ferry Landing. What you see (what shape the moon is) could very well be different than what I see here on the Prairie Front. We could each have a different moon calendar.

If we pay attention, keep track, our logging is specific to place. In Hawaiian, the word and the practice is Mauliauhonua. Human intimate with place. Like my practice and study of astrology, I keep at it; I'm a digger and try to make connections between one thing and another. Earlier this week Satori wrote about the planet Mercury's current path and its affect on how I might be thinking about my place on the Earth. Here's something that might make sense to you if you study astrology:

"... Mercury is direct and beginning to gain momentum this week. It doesn’t move far, but it’s the first step in getting back up to speed. While retrograde, Leo Mercury just sextiled Libra Venus and will do so again in early September, one degree past the shadow mark. Sweet!
It takes that long for great ideas and wishes to reframe themselves and find a foothold in daily life; as the Sun moves onto their first sextile midpoint in Virgo at that time. Being in service can bring about a wished for bounty of good ideas, connection, and compensation. Mark that the first four days of September..." - Satori

What's the weather (internal and/or external) like where you are, and how are you navigating?

All the ways we flow

This weekend we prepared to welcome performers and guests to the Safety Pin Cafe. There were makana (gifts) to wrap between the normal goings-on of a weekend on the Prairie Front.

Water colored shades of embroider floss would wrap beautiful hand-made paper, wauke perhaps, mulberry maybe, with a scene of water filled with Whales and Fish.

Pete measured lengths of floss, and I cut paper bundles enough to enclose unscented coconut soap harvested from the Solomon Island niu ola (coconut) plantation owned by a family for many generations. Packets of Hibiscus Tea was added, with a safety pin, to thank the musicians and dancers of Whidbey's Ukulele Kanikapila + two ('ohana was here from Brooklynn) and Halau o Mokupuni i Waina Na Mauna.

While we prepared our friend Prescott was inside the kitchen mixing up Apple and Almond scones to be sold in the Farmers' Market cafe, the Laughing Cat Cafe. Every Sunday throughout the market season Prescott is here making scones, preparing and volunteering for an afternoon of activity at the South Whidbey Tilth Farmers' Market.

My son called me from O'ahu late Saturday afternoon while I was wrapping gifts. That's me returning his call. We chatted, catching up on what was going on where he is, and where I am. Before our chat was over he pulled into the cemetary where his Tutu are buried. My Ma and Dad. I got to chat with them, too and included my family in the preparations and the welcoming of Ancestors and Audience into the coming event called "Water Catchers ... all the ways we flow."

 Our old friend Liz, from Anacortes drove down to be with us.

You don't see what weather came between the phone call and the pitching of Liz's tent. But it was a doozie of a storm: thunder, lightning, and pouring water. Water to catch, and then, it cleared to the sky pictured above.

Pete and Liz helped me with a mock set-up for Sunday's event. It gave me time to see how the two tents would feel, and for a few minutes I could sit with the Land, invite the Ancestors, and bless the activity that was to come. Other members of the Tilth community needed to borrow those tents for their own special event. It seemed the time to bless those tents was meant for more than the Safety Pin Cafe; there was a new baby coming that would need the water catching, too.

Sunday late morning, the tents for the Safety Pin Cafe were pitched for our performance. Welcoming the Ancestors and the Audience, I opened the Safety Pin Cafe. The chant or pray called Pule Ho'ulu'ulu is one that calls on the Ancestors as it also creates sacred space. I explained what I was doing, and taught the Audience a second chant, that would involve all there in the invocation. "E Ho Mai", the chant created by Edith Kanaka'ole of Hawaii Moku for her halau hula before they began the work of interpretation through hula, speaks of asking for permission, asking to be granted meaning(s) in the words.

I reflect on that Sunday morning days later as I edit this post adding words and removing pictures and wait to receive permission to publish photographs taken that day.

Re-located as I am from my home of origin in Hawaii to this place and this island in the Salish Sea this day in the Safety Pin Cafe was a grounding session for me and application of my astrology. My North Node in Taurus was beckoning me, along with our Audience, to live my karma. Like the author and astrologer Elizabeth Spring (who I link to in this paragraph), my South Node in Scorpio repeatedly tempts and taunts me to live dramatically; a way of life that is my default mode with deep roots and much practice from/in my early life. I too have "needed to get lost, and found, many times," returning over and over again to this Pacific Northwest environment.

Along with the chants that welcomed Ancestors and created sacred space the first story I shared, with permission, a re-telling of Aunty Pua Kanaka'ole Kanahele's TEDX Talk "Living the Myth, Unlocking the Metaphor" called on me as storyteller to be grounded in my personal resourcefulness. 

"The movement towards the North Node is a continuous process, not just one decision you make. For me, I needed to get lost, and found, many times--- I divorced and remarried the same man.  I write and do astrological counseling, which is my true vocation, but I have ‘followed several gods home’. I continually need to recommit to ever deeper levels of grounding and persistence in my work and life. Serenity and home life is very important. I know I survived a difficult family karmic inheritance, yet I strive to act out the highest octave of the Libra Sun which pulls me towards tactfulness and deep thinking.  And that South Node in Scorpio still tries to seduce me in every way you can imagine."  - Elizabeth Spring

Such joyful music and dance came from musicians and dancers adding a flavor of fun and faces that was missing from the Safety Pin Cafe.

People came to sit and listen and participate in the 'oli E Ho Mai, and held onto their grounding stick 'aunaki. The water, metaphoric and literal, flowed and the Praire Front was blessed with hearing her name in its sacred form. The land, the sky, the wind and the community found their place in that space of common magic.

And before all was concluded, a sweet family we met when first we opened the Safety Pin Cafe years ago sat with me to fold a water catcher made from the flier that announced the event. Four unfolded water catchers with packets of Red Hibiscus tea bags went home with dad and daughter; there were cousins who needed to learn to fold water catchers.

How perfect was that for an ending.

Many thanks. Mahalo Piha, Ancestors and Audience!

xo Mokihana and Pete

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? 

Journeying continued ... preparing for "Water Catchers"

The final hours, and last two days of the Power Power to Puyallup 2018 "Honoring our Medicine" is happening now. Friday evening I logged onto the site to watch and be part of the Live Stream Protocol. How awesome that is. How fitting an expansive definition for the theme of the upcoming event "Water Catchers ... all the ways we flow." As I listened and watched, moving with the rhythm of the drums and the dancers, the medicine flowed. The medicine grew.

More than a hundred canoes and their people have journeyed to the Puyallup land, the spirit of gathering and doing the business of tradition, respect for the elders is paramount and demanding no drugs weed, smoke, alcohol use lays protocol into the broad net of its meanings happened live in the tents while we, those who had access to the Internet, 'swam' in the stream of the Creator's great plan.

All afternoon and into the evening our laptop was connected to the Protocol Tent in Puyallup. We learn so much! The video screen shot I've shared was done so because I saw that when a speaker or a tribe did not want to be recorded (and therefore accessible to the public online as well) the video crew stopped recording. Weaving technology of the present with the protocol of time immemorial created something new.

10 more hours of songs and dancing is promised in the tent today, Sunday. I'm planning to find a place to keep the stream coming, so I can participate in the final protocol. We are here, but, there is also room for 'there.'

While the people gathered in the Protocol Tent on Puyallup land, our small circle garden planted here in the  pea patches on the Prairie Front grow. The stones mark our sacred planting space, a first time garden here. We planted corn and beans, the beans were a most powerful seed taking most of the space and thriving.

 I planted two kinds of beans: a Green Pole Bean and Fava Beans that weren't supposed to be very tall (I thought). Fava Beans are a new family for me; I've eaten them but never planted them. How delicious and amazing they are.

The one I'm holding is filled with smaller than the bean most people know about as large and sometimes cooked, marinated in olive oil and herbs and eaten with pita bread. The pod about I'll steam whole and we'll eat them right in the pod. Yum.

It's morning, and Pete and I have already cleared and cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom we use during the week. The tables for market visitors and guests are set with freshly cleaned tableclothes and small vases of flowers gathered from the plant people who give up their beauty as their gifts ... bless us today, and a few days forward.

Our friend Russell Clapper is setting up the stage for music to come this morning. Vendors are setting up their canopies and tables to sell and meet the people here on the Prairie Front. On another tab, again thanks to the technology of this little machine I hear the Arena Manager talking about what will happen next year and beyond into 2022: Paddle to Lummi is set for 2020; and another journey to Alcatraz as well. Alright!

The journeying does continue as we prepare the first Safety Pin Cafe event in two years. With all the medicine shared with us over the week, I am excited, humbled and inspired to bring my medicine to the stage and onto the land. The Whidbey hui ukulele will be joining us this year, for a first time expanded version of telling story. We are excited, and looking forward to the day. 

Please join us if you're on Whidbey. We'd love to include you in the stories, the 'oli, the music, the medicine of knowing who and what a Water Catcher is.

And, if you open this post anytime during the afternoon and early evening Pacific Standard Time Sunday, August 5, 2018 you can enjoy the live stream happenings of Power Paddle to Puyallup, 2018.

As I prepared for bed Saturday night, after the sounds of faces, the people, the First Languages, the songs, stories and dances had filled the air above the Prairie Front, I cleaned off our porch and steps and looked out across this land. To her (this land), I spoke with the love that I had experienced because the People have gathered their medicine and shared it.

I asked aloud, "Aren't you happy to have heard your language again? For how long has it been?"

I looked out across the tops of the barn red buildings out across the tops the Service Berries and flag poles to see all the planting. In my heart the Prairie Front and I let out a collective deep sigh of gratitude. I like to believe the answer in all languages, that is the most powerful of prayers and medicine, is "Yes, happy to have heard all languages. Yes, it has been too long."

E ola! Here's to life and languages of respect for all of life!