He puko'a kani 'aina ... lesson for an 'Ole Po Friday, July 24, 2105

HE PUKO'A KANI 'AINA

A coral reef that grows into an island.

A person beginning in a small way gains steadily until he/she becomes firmly established.

We brought young coconut meat to share

with the two Calyx hens

Then Pete and I walked to the Vet's Garden 

We said Pule Ho'ulu'ulu together in the garden with the plants, introducing ourselves and giving thanks in Hawaiian

Laukahi Plantain or White Man's Footstep thrive in the dry and loamy grounds of The Prairie Front. We came to ask if they would permit the company of other plants we have in mind. We wait for their answer.

Back in the Subaru, my traveling companion, the La'i enjoyed a drink of rain the night before. We're heading to the 'classroom' space for our noon gathering.

We set the table with soup and fruit and read the Thanksgiving Address to each other and for all plant, bird, tree, sky, company who were there at The Prairie Front

"Standing around us we see all the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who each have their own instructions and uses. Some provide shelter and shade, others fruit and beauty and many useful gifts. The Maple is the leader of the trees, to recognize its gift of sugar when the People need it most. Many peoples of the world recognize a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind we greet and thank the Tree life. Now our minds are one." The Words That Come Before All Else Onandaga Nation "Thanksgiving Address"

We played a game of HULO! to build our Hawaiian vocabulary. These are the words I made using the wooden alphabet tiles.

How to not plunge over the cliff ... applying the medicine of ceremony

A year ago with my back against Cedar and JOTS still in the flesh ... there! The messages of NATURE's songs

This weekend Pete and I gathered and created practical ceremony to integrate flexibility and strength into our lives, weaving Feng Shui's wisdom to slow the in and out without dams ... cedar's fingers reach from her slow growing core, 'ohe the bamboo maintains its strength and its gifts. Harvested cedar made into panels are our teachers.

There's a welcoming cool breeze coming from the South. Yesterday ws one of the hottest days of the Summer at 95 degrees while driving on the freeway, the morning is cool and the sky overcast. The wind is present the mutable energy tempering all the heat and contentiousness of the collective.

Saturn is still in Scorpio through September 18, Astrologer Lynn Koiner writes as if she were writing to me personally, "What I am telling my clients is that early 2015 will be a sense of something new about to happen, a new vision and a new direction, but the timing is not right for bolting out of the starting gate. From June through September 2015, Saturn retreats back into Scorpio in the late degrees. Many will be drawn to go back and finish up issues and projects from the past. We cannot move forward with a lot of loose ends from the past cycle holding us back.When Saturn is in the late degrees[as it is now], it is always an ending cycle, a time to end what no longer works in our lives. Once it returns to Sagittarius, according to Jeanne, it will lift the delusions created by Neptune in Pisces. The lessons of Sagittarius are connected with freedom, open-mindedness and truth. Of course, there is a big difference between the Facts and the Truth! " 

How does that apply to HO'OMOKU? The first small group (two new students) gathered for the first class on Friday just passed. Both students were not fragrance-free. I thought I was prepared, and thought I was clear about what fragrance-free means. But, it is a process not a one stop shop of a definition. Another astrologer, Satori, advises " If you try to permanently fill the leaky well? It feels lousy. If you enjoy the process of carrying water and dumping it, that it builds up your strength and feels good in the doing? You make the most of the energy. The process is the goal today." HO'OMOKU means 'make island.' It's a process, it doesn't happen over night. 

Stepping into the flow of the collective (public) meeting space, I had a witness who observed what happened to me when the first whiff of fragrance triggered my adrenal system. "Loss of control" and red lights of fight, flight, fear. But I thought this was a person I could trust to be with ... within minutes of being with my first student the 'big difference between the Facts and the Truth' challenged my desire to belong. I'm a teaching wanting to teach. But, I am a teacher who also must teach my boundaries. The process is difficult because to teach, talk, and offer solutions depletes me as I do it.

I persisted, and managed to get through but I functioned but did not flourish. Recovery and recouping took two days. Applying the medicine of ceremony, and process rather than immediate results there is ... the wind from the south bringing the potential, bringing change. Pete and I made a joyful and easy road trip off island and south to Seattle. We headed for a wedding between one of our Seattle-MCS Group friends and her new love. When we were newly returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2008 this group, and this new bride was our pocket of support. We had to rebuild our safety net, we had to relearn the lesson of safety pins. 

So. While we recovered our balance after Friday's experience with fragranced students, we looked forward to being with people who live with the many-faceted illness of MCS. We came to celebrate marriage for two people in the second-half of life. We embraced what was good about our lives. We had a great time! 

The process of communicating and setting boundaries is a 'chop wood and carry water' experience. A zen koan. A do it and know you do it again sort of thing. Saturn in Scorpio for the last time in my life (probably!) is giving me the opportunity to let go of what no longer works in my life. Unless my decision is to let go of my life and plunge over the cliff, today might be is a time to embrace the good, celebrate pockets of good and carry water. There are adjustments I need to make here at HO'OMOKU.

Can you relate?

Ceremonies help us remember to remember

"Ceremonies transcend the boundaries of the individual and resonate beyond the human realm. These acts of reverence are powerfully pragmatic. These are ceremonies that magnify life. In many indigenous communities, the hems of our ceremonial robes have been unraveled by time and history, but the fabric remains strong. In the dominant society, though, ceremony seems to have withered away." - Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Created from the memories of deep knowing the protocol of respect for place, and the people and beings who were here first feed the design and essence of home-made ceremony. Challenged to walk a journey with both feet intentionally on the skin of our Island Earth Home, we remember to remember.

On the place the People called 'the prairie front' my husband Pete and I bring our home-made ceremonies, the stories that hold life together, braiding ke'ia with kela, the here together with there. We do it as an everyday practice in spite of the assaulting common product worn by those who wrongly assume their consumption will do no harm. Teaching through example we reel from the triggers of fragrances. We call on the 'ohe, the bamboo to teach us remind us about strength and flexibility.

"We cross borders without regard, ignorant or arrogant of the protocol native to the transitional spaces that take us from this place to that place. Traditions remembered and practiced would maintain and pass along the right things to do, at the right time, and in the right frame of mind. Have we all become wanderers with passports unstamped with the memory of teachings from the Ancestors and Nature? There are rituals to remember and common magic to induce respect for the beings and places that share this planet." 

- from the Introduction" of my medicine story The Safety Pin Cafe 

"We follow the Chinese New Year ... once Makali'i the Pleiades is seen rising on the horizon, the next New Moon the follows marks the beginning of the New Year." - Kalei Nu'uhiwa (Tsuha) Kaulana Mahina

With the moon in her Ku po (phases newly illuminating after New Moon) I stand this post up with a ceremonial and physical boundary setting. Together Pete and I asked 'ohe and the many-times used cedar lattices to help with applying their lessons: Flexible and strong, there is a border to cross consciously, it is in place. We remember to remember that, and give thanks to the wind who is visiting, too. Amana ua no.

July 17, 2015 Papa kuhikuhi (Content for Gathering)

Papa kuhikuhi

Friday, July 17, 2015

Noon until 1:30 PM

at The Prairie Front(South Whidbey TITLH), Whidbey Island

Purple plums coming ripe on a Muku po (link here to see what else we counted on this po)

PULE HO'ULU'ULU
Welcome 

E HO MAI
Questions and clarification

MEA 'AI
We eat lunch while we gather. How does that sound for everybody? Other options ... 

THE NINETY-MINUTE NOON
- What we do while together *
-  What we practice/research/apply between gathering times +

FOCUS for all of JULY

We build or make island a little at a time ... He puko'a kani 'aina
We braid (metaphorically and literally) ... the here*, and the there+

* What we do while together
1. MALAMA and MALAMA
-The Hawaiian Moon Calendar KAULANA MAHINA
-Hawaiian Moon Phase game
-Introduce the practice of keeping track of the moon NA HELU PO


2. 'OLELO
-The Hawaiian vocabulary
-practice with the sounds of the Hawaiian alphabet
- Play with the game HULO! and use the Hawaiian Dictionary

3. MAKUA O'O
-Introduce the 9 Basic Tools of the practice of elder-in-training

+ What we do between gathering times
1. Spend time with the kumu (teachers) Kalei Tsuha(Nu'uhiwa); watch and listen to the Puana Ka 'Ike Webcasts between gathering times; reinforce the concepts of a Hawaiian form of counting and time
2. The Hawaiian Dictionary ... open it up once a day and eli eli kau mai (dig in)
3. Make notes in your personal Moon Journals (using the "Lunar Observation Sheet")
4. Optional offering and exploration: Robin Kimmerer "The Teaching of Grass"

PIHA PAU (Enough for now)
Mahalo, Thanksgiving and reciprocity (payment) Clean-up

The task of the teacher Part II

I am, and to a different degree, my husband is also, living with the illness called MCS or Chemical Sensitivities. At the base of things, or as a corner stone of HO'OMOKU the story "What is HO'OMOKU" begins,   "Storyteller and teacher Mokihana Calizar and her husband Pete Little open the door to The Safety Pin Cafe, where story is at the heart of service in a fragrance-free and chemical-free setting.*   Building from that heart of story, the tables welcome their community in a journey based on na waiwai Hawaii, Hawaiian values. With the poi bowl readied, the 'aumakua (ancestors seen and unseen) welcomed with 'oli (chant), and the families of this Whidbey Island community seated and welcomed, we ask for permission to share/teach and learn what we need to learn."

What I need to share/teach and learn has begun, now that our opening ceremony has called on the Ancestors to grow island. 

Airing out the hand-stitched letters of the word H O ' O M O KU on the fence, at home in the woods ... preparation time

The July Friday HO'OMOKU gatherings focus on Malama, or Malama. 

Malama. 1. to take care of, care for, preserve; to keep or observe, as a taboo; to conduct, as a service; to serve, honor, as God; care, preservation, support; fidelity; loyalty; custodian, caretaker
Malama. (with no additional emphasis on the first 'a') 1. Light, month 2. Perhaps (Rare) - Hawaiian Dictionary, Pukui & Elbert

"Chemical sensitivity (a.k.a. multiple chemical sensitivity; or environmental illness) is a condition characterized by an acute intolerance to low levels of chemicals, molds, and other substances[including fragrances and scented products]. Exposure to extremely low levels of an offending substance can cause a wide variety of symptoms, ranging in severity from mild to completely debilitating, and can even be life-threatening. Each sufferer’s triggers and reactions will be unique to their biochemistry and injury, and both their symptom set and reactivity level may change over time (getting better or worse depending on subsequent exposures and treatments, or lack thereof). Chemical sensitivity can affect multiple organ systems and is often progressive if lifestyle changes are not implemented. There have been several reported deaths from this illness... - Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) What is it?

  ..."Though developing the condition of chemical intolerance is traumatic enough, the social isolation and rejection/blame that often comes with the diagnosis can be too much for some to handle. Suicide rates are high among sufferers of chemical sensitivity. There are no government programs in place to help people with this recognized disability other than SSDI/SSI which are generally not sufficient for monthly expenses, let alone medical bills."

* To share and teach in a face-to-face group setting is a huge step of trust for me. The reality of living with MCS described in Julie Genser's essay above is accurate and applicable to me and Pete. We have lived through many debilitating and life-threatening episodes in the past decade. Social isolation and rejection? We experience that regularly.

Time, adaptation and learning to malama (care for) our dear selves, by remembering the practices of my Hawaiian roots and this home place ISLAND EARTH, is a daring experiment. To HO'OMOKU ... activate a new and wiser version of our kuleana (personal responsibility) Pete and I must create a small public place from which to share and teach. Over the past three years we have been doing that on the land called the South Whidbey TILTH. Now we know this place in the Lushootseed language, and it translates to "Prairie front."

• This post is being written to remind any and all students of this requirement: COME FRAGRANCE FREE. 
• Read and inform yourself about MCS, and if any questions or remain for you, please consider how invested you are to come and be with us at HO'OMOKU. 

• We live a Wee Economy. Read how we created a life on wheels to rebuild our lives.

"A tiny home and a reassembling life brings you back to basics. We learn with each of our moves about what to throw, what to keep and how to keep what we have. Folks who live in small spaces either come with a working reality of a zen-centered approach to stuff, or learn the face-to-face reality of living with less space. When we lived on the Ledge, friends offered us a place to park ourselves and our new home in an idyllic setting. We arrived with more stuff than we could keep within our vardo. A rented pick-up truck and our 'Scout' the Subaru carried the chattels of our minimizing life. We have been travellers for more than a decade. Each of our moves (prior to the on-set of severe MCS) included the sorting of what would come with or be left with friends, family or folks we might never meet. We began building VardoForTwo from the space of a basement kitchenette with the abundant outside cooking space and a space room that became a storage space and place for Pete to keep his work-and-building clothes. Life on the Ledge allowed us to remember how to breathe deeply after a long spell of survival only life. It was a beautiful feeling, and we did bliss out from the blessing of oxygen-rich air, an electrical outlet that fed our needs, friends who were willing to share and learn about our new needs. Spring and Summer allowed us to set up outdoor cooking space beneath the huge canopy of Tall Ones...

READ our first blog VARDO FOR TWO to learn how we have rebuilt a life

To commit to being in the weekly study group, you will be asked to dig deep and it does start with being willing and able to be free of even the lowest level of triggering scents.

If you have any question about being fragrance free, call Mokihana or Pete before coming.

Mokihana's cellphone 808 398-6654
Pete's cellphone 425 232-6830

The task of the teacher Part I

"The task of the teacher is to be open, rather than attached, to outcomes. Openness and non-attachment helps us recover the human resources of wisdom and objectivity. Every culture has traditional and non-traditional means of education. Shamanic traditions believe that wisdom is flexible and fluid. The teacher's way is to be open to outcome and access wisdom by learning how to trust and be comfortable with states of not knowing.

Trust is the container out of which the qualities of wisdom grow clarity, objectivity, discernment and detachment. The opposite of trust is control. The trickster figure found in many shamanic traditions functions to present surprises and the unexpected as a way of waking people out of their routines and shocking them into seeing their attachments.

Among many shamanic traditions, the Way of the Teacher is associated with the direction of the West, the home of Grandmother Ocean and all the water creatures. The ocean is nature's mirror for indigenous cultures to learn how to be malleable and fluid." The Four-Fold Way, Angeles Arrien

O ke kahua manua, mahope ke kukulu.

The site first; and then the building.

Learn all you can, then practice.

-'Olelo No'eau

Click on the ocean to see a larger view.

Hanau e, hanau ka ho'omoku ... the birth is blessed!

Playing unplugged to begin 

 Telling the story of Ruby (Rubellite Kawena Johnson) and her Tutu's lesson with the coconut tree

 Encouraging the lesson of being firm in your commitment, and the far-reaching effect of the water of life found in the niuola.

 And the young meat of the niuola is so ono!

 Playing HULO (Hawaiian word game) with wooden tiles and the Hawaiian Dictionary

 Haumana ho'olaulima (Students cleaning up)

 Introductions, and conversation the heart of Hawaiian culture is in truly hearing another's story. We share the salt, wrap the story, and ask another to help keep it safely tied.

 The beautiful la'i sent to us from O'ahu by our cousin Kaliko become braided lei done in pairs like braiding sweetgrass

We have begun to ho'omoku and the birthing was a blessed event. Mahalo to all, Mahalo na aumakua.

Opening Ceremony Friday, July 10, 2015 at South Whidbey TILTH

airing out the banner on the fence at home

Here's our intended flow of pule, welcome, and ceremony for Open House
... somethings may change, while others stay the same


Pule Ho'ulu'ulu (Prayer to the Ancestors)

Blessing with 'olena (Hawaiian turmeric) and ocean water

Aloha mai nei kakou, mahalo na aumakua

Greetings, Welcome and Thank-you

E Ho Mai
(asking and preparing our hearts and minds to listen)

Listen and repeat

"The Words Before All Else"
(From Braiding Sweetgrass written by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This text translated from the Onandaga language by John Stokes and Kanawahientun, 1993)

All participate

"Why we are here" Song

Tulalilip Lushootseed Language Department

 Describing the set-up for today's activities

and sharing our vision for HO'OMOKU ... making island 

He puko'a kani 'aina
A coral reef that grows into an island.
A person beginning in a small way gains steadily until firmly established.
(Kupuna words  of wisdom 'Olelo No'eau upon which Ho'omoku is built)

Niuola (water of life, the coconut)

The story, the drink, the gift

"I am the descendants of (fill in the blank) survivors." 

(the bowls of salt and making of bundles)

Ceremony of introductions one-to-one

Mea 'Ai (Lunch)

Kupe'e/Lei la'i (braiding bracelets/lei of la'i)

Braiding with another person

Hulo ('olelo Hawaii vocabulary game)

Fun way to building your Hawaiian vocabulary

Special mahalo to 

Christopher Kawika Brown our son from Antony, France for the HO'OMOKU Logo
Kaliko Amona our cousin from Pupukea, Oahu for the gathering, cleaning and shipping of La'i
Jude Bierman our dear friend from the Maxwelton Valley for the financial support to grow HO'OMOKU
Pete Little my husband and co-conspirator in this life for his mending, meddling magic and love
The South Whidbey TILTH Community and Board of Directors, especially Prescott for their commitment to our vision to encourage and create chemical and fragrance free public spaces
The Tulalip Lushootseed Language Department for sharing the First Names of this place, and the place where Pete and I live
Eric and the members of the Langley STAR Store produce department
for making it possible to enjoy
our young niuola

 The box of 100 la'i arrived Thursday morning. We opened the box that evening before the Opening Ceremony.

 Linda and Dawn sort the leaves by size

 Showing how to 'bone' the leaves to get the soft sides for braiding

 After the sides have been set into a pot of boiling water to soften, the haumana braid between them

Mahalo nui kakou a pau

Family of the Coconut

Niu 

I was born on a Hoaka Moon, a Ku Moon. Today, Mahina moves out of the 'Ole phases into the Kaloa phases. We are preparing for ceremony tomorrow: baking pineapple upside-down cakes just like Ma would. A pot of chicken marinates in ginger and apple cider vinegar with lots of garlic and coconut amino acids; I'll cook that up for sharing as a cool noon dish. The box of la'i fresh green ti leaves has arrived. I called Kaliko, "Mahalo! They arrived. Uncle Pete went in and got them. They arrived early." Pete is out at the TILTH checking out the site for tomorrow, and checking on equipment.

The young coconuts chill'n, a pot of chicken marinating

One cake down, the other readied for the oven

A box of green ti leaves from O'ahu arrived safely 'where goosberry bushes grow'

To put myself into the flow I heard the name "Ruby." Waking from my very informative dreams, I headed to the Quonset to get the eggs and butter for the cakes. Then I came here (to the keyboard) and pulled up the link to a 2008 evening with one of my first teachers when I was a young student at the University of Hawaii in Manoa on the island of O'ahu. That is the Ruby that my 'aumakua reminded me of this morning ... hear her again they said. So wise, so right on time, at the right time!

Rubellite Kawena Johnson "Ruby" is a treasure of knowledge applied. This morning as I melted butter, mixed cake batter and walked in and out of the Quonset, I listened and watched my beloved kumu ... The link to that two-part presentation is here.  Pete and I sat, listened and watched our favorite teacher together. Her presence was what we both needed. To focus. To be reassured of our place in this evolving Island Earth. We appreciate that the technology of advanced human curiosity allows us to re-connect with Kumu Ruby Kawena Johnson again, and again.

I met Kumu in 1967 when young and empty though I knew not how empty. In the almost fifty years since I first sat, listened and watched her in the large old classrooms of the University of Hawaii, there have been many turnings huli of the night sky. Change has come, and gone. Today we cool two cases of young coconut shipped across the oceans, just as my sea-faring survivor ancestors did long long ago. It took much effort to secure the babies of coconut trees that were once growing on some Thai plantation owners land. We mahalo them! The planters and the niuola.

We will share those babies -- the nuts filled with sustaining flesh and life-giving water. As I finished listening to Kumu's presentation I was rewarded with a story I had forgotten she tells at the very end of the two-part talk. It is about her experience as a young girl who was sure she could not climb a ten foot coconut tree, in a dress. If you are curious enough to listen to Kumu and her connection with coconuts (as I am connected) you will learn about a young girl's lesson from her Tutu (grandmother ... her four-foot tall one, and the ten-feet tall one). The presentation is here.

Mahalo Kumu. I love you.