"Yeah, we were in Manoa last night, about midnight. She was straight up."
"Okay, not yet. Maybe one more month for her to rise on the horizon at sunset."
"Then it's Makahiki?" he asked.
"Count one more new moon. The next one. That starts Makahiki."
"Oh!" He was still jet lagged. Long trip from Paris to Honolulu. But. He was back!
Between us my son and I have made trans-Pacific and then trans-world crossings between the moku of Hawaii dozens of times. My crossings have slowed to a crawl or stand-still. His continue and the miles between here and there increase. Still the magnet is no less powerful.
Since the 'Aimalama Lunar Conference during the 'supermoon full moon eclipse' at the end of September, I have been taking the next step (s) ... to share my kilo practice and my love for kaona. Kilo and kaona together seem inseparable for me. Over a lifetime the practice of noticing and noting what happens in my place (wherever that might be) has found its way into the writing and stories that want to be told. The way the stories have strung themselves together have, and continue, or maybe become even more supple yet powerful as metaphor, patterns, images all knot themselves with that hipu'u of kaona. The point of potential is both hipu'u where the small eye of a fisherman's net creates closure, while leaving room for flow.
The next step I'm taking at the moment is the writing of a grant for The Native Artist's Grant Program at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. It's the first time I've applied for a grant. And the experience is surprising me. I must admit that if I were doing it without mentorship and support from a long-time friend I would not have gotten as far as I have. (Thank you jt!) The project I'm proposing is a two-piece spoken word with guide book designed to advance my art as a storyteller who can no longer share the art through public (face-to-face) venues because of the increased severity of the illness MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities).
Here's an excerpt from the grant application:
"The project Mo'o Muliwai embeds the meaning and objectives its name. "Mo'o" means 1. Lizard, reptile of any kind, dragon, serpent; water spirit, enchanter 2. Succession, series, especially a genealogical line. "Muliwai" means River, river mouth; pool near mouth of a stream, as behind a sandbar, enlarged by ocean water left there by high tide; estuary. It's English translation "stories from the water's edge" preceded with the three dots ... is both a Hawaiian esthetic tool and visual image. Small dots with spaces between them leave so much to the imagination and leave room for kaona the many potential meanings to feed the mo'o.
This project Mo'o Muliwai is a gift of stories, myth, everyday common journeys woven together over a lifetime. A memoir? An audio book? Na mo'olelo, these stories, will be that, but it will be more. As a makua o'o an elder still in training, the giving is the reason and it is in the telling --the oral transmission -- that story is best remembered. "If you will sit with me, I will spin for you a story told from the heart." Originally written down, the two stories for this project are the muli the tail end, the last ones or most recent babies, in a series of medicine stories that began when illness separated me from my Hawaii Islands home place..."
Makahiki begins shortly after my birthday in November. My son is on O'ahu with his cousins, near his aunty in Waimanalo, and within a bus ride to his Tutu Man and Tutu Lady's grave sites in Kaneohe. That is good news. I hope to have more good news by the end of the year, and pray for the resilience and support to feed this project Mo'o Muliwai to kanaka and venturers of kilo and kaona as a birthday gift next year. That's optimism,Saturn is in Sagittarius after all.
While I use the 'Ole Po (the 'ole phases) to consider what and why I do this, I listen to Clarissa Pinkola Estees' MOTHER NIGHT Myths, Stories & Teachings for learning to see in the Dark. It is just past noon, but, Mahina has yet to rise. Moonrise is at 1:38 PM. The pieces of my kilo practice draw on so many things. Listening and hearing the messages from MOTHER NIGHT, I re-listen to the answers on the audio learning course. Especially I wait to hear Estees' answer to the question, "What should I do when my medial nature impacts others as too big or too much?"
In essence the cantadora suggests two options:
- May yourself smaller, that's what a star does ... did you know that. Maybe the quieter you become you are seeding people with ideas...Doing some relationship works before. Maybe less [doing] and sometimes it frightens or are not used to it.
- Another way is to be exactly as you are and just be patient. Let me explain this another way. Estees gives us listeners the story of her experience of waiting 20 years to finally getting her seminal work Women Who Run With the Wolves.
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| Whidbey Island Tides and the Sun and Moon's rises and sets |
Today, Monday between 'Ole Kukahi and 'Ole Kulua, I update this post and practice the kilo of applying the 'ole. The wait. The patience...suffering as immediate gratification is postponed. Another word, another way of understanding the 'ole for me is to hear and see my Cousin boarding the Hawaiian Airline's plane, following me as I prepared to leave O'ahu in 1971. She had a book of Hawaiian study to give me and a one word reminder, "Ho'omanawanui!" Patience, the long view.
I remember her today, and give thanks to her with this addition. Kilo and kaona. So many ways to get their messages. Mahalo Cousin.
