Under the red yawning: a pin's worth of magic

 "I think that even if illness was suddenly, blessedly removed as a factor in my life, I would still be at this same point in my journey: having reached the years of middle age, and recognizing that time is not infinite, I feel compelled to turn inward and focus my time and attention on truly mastering my craft. - Terri Windling

The Hawaiian Moon Calendar Kaulana Mahina offers me regular emotional and practical tune-ups. Though we can often go without seeing Mahina from my place in the woods, I know there are times to rest, re-view my actions and weed or re-tell the stories I am telling. These re-view times are called the 'Ole Moons, or Quarter Moon Phases four phases before Full Moon and three phases prior to the New Moon. The past four days and nights have been 'Ole. These 'Ole times are not a good time for beginning new projects if given the option. I have been re-viewing, resting and considering the stories I tell. There have been no weekly updates to The Safety Pin Cafe while I attended to the internal clockworks, till now...

Town is busy with visitors and regulars and my thoughts thick and worries weighty. I kept at the business of living and sought out a better feeling thought, and found it. There was a gift to find and wishes to be sent to loved ones. Even with so few spoons, I heed my astrologer's advice and sought the good for someone other than myself. As I crossed that sticky bog where the Worry Wart Clan lay their seductions, my silly-loving fingers found just the bit of magic I needed to pack a moveable feast for two: the gift for the loved ones! A happy orange lightweight and collapsible picnic basket and four checked cotton napkins will fit easily into a parcel bound for a town near Paris. Snacks and tiny star candles will start the moveable feast bound for France.

Keen with the scent of gift-giving the perfect traveling red awning under which I might take moveable feasts from The Safety Pin Cafe called "Here. Here I am." Wrapped in a sheaf of clear plastic at least a yard's length it stuck out of a basket of umbrellas. On a busy day in Salish (which was wearing sunblock instead of rain boots) disguised as a red golf umbrella with a fiberglass stem was the moveable awning for The  Safety Pin Cafe.

A hand stitch, language of birds, a safety pin: common magic, complex nature

"Common" ... western definitions

1. belonging equally to, or shared alike by, two or more or all in question: common property; common interests.

2. pertaining or belonging equally to an entire community, nation, or culture; public: a common language or history; a common water-supply system.

3. joint; united: a common defense.

4. widespread; general; ordinary: common knowledge.

5. of frequent occurrence; usual; familiar: a common event; a common mistake.

"Common" ... Hawaiian definitions
1. hana mau
2. ma'amau,
3. laha, laakea

"Commoner"
1. Maka'ainana
2. noa
3. 'ino
4. hua
5. noa'noa

“I have heard the Amish will place a small mistake or imperfection in a quilt or other handmade item. Why is this done?”
“We’ve heard that many years ago sometimes a scrap of fabric that didn’t quite match was used inconspicuously in a patchwork quilt to give it “identity.” We question whether this is true. We don’t know of any quilters who would do that today. Amish quilts are all band quilted; stitches are very small and uniform. But, no matter how hard one tries, the stitches are not all identical and perfect. A quilt may have an imperfection, but it wasn’t on purpose.” - The Amish People

The door to The Safety Pin Cafe has been open for a week, and oh how thrilled we are to have had so many visitors.  Less costly than investing in the creation of the boards and batten of a store-front and eatery, the cost as a writer and translator of words and history is instead kuleana ... personal responsibility. I am a happy woman sharing the story, the characters and the journey of culture for it is precisely, and imperfectly, that journey of culture evolving that fills the cup of those who walk through the cafe door.

Invite The Possibility

"The Safety Pin Cafe is close, nearer than one could imagine and is open especially to those who straggle borders listening for the comfort of an empty cup needing filling.

 

"This is a stop over place, The Safety Pin Cafe," the chef said as we watched The Faceless Woman empty the mug of warm milk and vanilla. Raven refilled her mug and sprinkled more cinnamon. "Not every one finds this place, it's easily missed among the distractions ... this and that, either or. But, many do find us and we never turn people, mostly woman, away."