Ua le'ale'a no

Trans. (English) Wow, what a rain.
The kaona (Hawaiian) The conversation and interaction was amazing (joyous, delightful, lively)!

I sit to write.
Here.
The sound of the rain pounds.
Heavy beat.
Hear.
The curved metal roof shelters.
I am dry.
Here.
My ears, heart this rain.
Wet.

Because we live outside and so close to 'aina (the land and all her elemental company) we know on a morning like this once you step out you going get wet! Grab your hoodie or the big umbrella. Forty to fifty steps, depended upon whose stepping, will be required to get from the Quonset (here) to the sleeping place (there), and half as many steps to get to the stove and oven under the eaves of the hale 'au'au (wash house). The Sun has yet to rise so unless there are lights turned on small lakes will be in the pathways; we learn to sidestep them, a flashlight helps.

Ua le'ale'a no was the message Malia Nobrega-Olivera sent out to all the HuiAimalama FB folks who participated in Monday's online lecture about becoming Mauliauhonua.

The message reinforced the expanding sense (that's Jupiter paired up with that Libra Full Moon) that was spread out (another Jupiter characteristic) using contemporary tools (the Internet, interactive software). The two hour online lecture and interactive question and answer and discussion that took place was truly a pounding beat of rain (nourishment). 52 participants from the Hawaiian Islands, 1 participant from Texas, 1 participant from Aotearoa and 1 participant from Washington creating that ua le'ale'a no. 

I woke from a dream this morning. In it I was part of two groups. At different times in my waking life I have been in these kinds of groups. The first group a 12-Step meeting just getting organized, I had to leave when someone showed up with heavily fragranced product. I told the leader "I have chemical sensitivities, I have to go."  The second group was a corporate setting. A company was being bought out, I recognized the signs and sought out the man in HR who would give me the scoops/the process for transition. We knew each other well. He was a brown-skinned man dressed in an Aloha shirt. There were forms to fill out, he did that for me and said, "You mind going to two other places?" I trusted him. In the next part of the dream I was in an aircraft loud and tinny sounding. Two other women were seated in front. No one wore seat belts. I buckled up, crossed my legs (there was plenty of leg-room!) When we landed I asked, "Do you know where we are? What country this is?" The women were vacant. I could not understand the language on the street signs. The final scene in the dream was a view of the itinerary for the transitional team's take-over. It was the size of the RVs that caught my attention. All of them were big. These are places I have been. Places where I have been, and done what I did.

As I ferret the thoughts and words to compose this post, the rain has changed; the drops no less heavy there are pauses between the pelts. I'm hoping for a break in the ua action long enough to stand outside to make a pot of oatmeal for breakfast. We have a road trip planned in a couple hours and a good breakfast will be a good thing. New sounds add to the pelts of ua: birdsong. I heard them in the darkened morning sky as I walked to the outhouse. Robins. Now, I hear Sparrow welcoming the light of the Sun.

The 'Aimalama group grounds me to a root connection that supports and empowers me and Pete to apply what we are learning in our lives as aware and awakened folks (mauli). The online lecture was chocked full of intelligence and inquiry; discussion and perspectives similiar and unique. The conversation was a private event for those of us using traditional practices to adapt to current climate (of all kinds) change. The content for the lecture included 5 components. (Before I share the details of these components I will ask for permission.) But, the final component was this from Kalei Nuuhiwa:

Become Mauliauhonua - "Be the App"The final component is to work towards becoming the expert in your neighborhood or community. Tell us what you can do to start building your foundational database of your location.

After I have communicated with Kalei and her gang, I hope to come back here to keep building on the foundation of sharing the long tale here at The Safety Pin Cafe. Keep your kilo genes turned on.

kilo. Stargazer, reader of omens, seer, astrologer; kind of looking glass (obs.) to watch closely, spy, examine. - Hawaiian Dictionary, Pukui & Elbert

Today and Tonight Full Moon in Libra

A full moon, the moon and sun are on a line, with Earth in between. It’s as though Earth is the fulcrum of a seesaw, and the moon and sun are sitting on either end of the seesaw. So as the sun sets in the west, the full moon rises. When the sun is below our feet at midnight, the full moon is highest in the sky. When the sun rises again at dawn, the full moon is setting. - Earth and Sky

Yesterday the Sun was out and with it Wind blew too. Cherry and Plum blossoms are a riot of fragile petals. I drove myself out to the sunny grounds of The Tilth where I knew fields of wildly yellow-faced Dandelions would await me. I was harvesting for Dandelion Vinegar. Before leaving the woods Salmon Berry's fuchsia stops me in my tracks, waves at me. I notice, pay attention to where I am now.

Later this afternoon (10 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 7 PM Hawaii Time) as Mahina the Moon fattens into her full and glorious light Hui 'Aimalama will gather on Facebook (a closed group; but, "this event will be archived temporarily on our Hui ʻAimalama site for about a week or two. This is our first lecture, please allow for mistakes and snags as we are learning as we go along. But we are looking forward to reaching out to you all and hopefully that some of you will reach back too. Letʻs all enjoy the experience and help to elevate one another's learning. Ok? Ok!") for a first time online 1 hour lecture. It's a learn as we go venue says Co-founder Kalei Nu'uhiwa. 

"Aloha kākou e nā kilo o ka honua ola. Welina. The ʻAimalama team has been meeting to see how we can provide information on the Kaulana Mahina and ʻAimalama methodology to a broader community and have decided on providing the first FB Hui ʻAimalama lecture. It will be for 1 hour with interactive question and answer throughout. 
We will be discussing the process of becoming Mauliauhoua. No laila, He aha ia mea, he mauliauhonua?"

Astrologically the Full Moon is in the sign of Libra. A bit of the week's forecast includes this, from Satori

"So Monday there’s the full moon in Libra. You’re a person. Your needs are as valid as the needs of others. Those needs are not more important, but they’re AS important. Balance. Has who you are gotten lost in service to the relationship? It’s time to assert your own needs. Doing so without tumult is a delicate thing to manage. It’s tough. It’s necessary...(read the whole)

Over the long haul life here, or there, has been a constant theme: Can I live on the Islands of my birth and maintain a relationship with my haole (foreign) husband and not be engulfed with the reality of American culture? Is my root connect to being Hawaiian strong and flexible enough to keep growing and learning? The answers are tough, like Satori suggests in her take on this week's heavenly aspects. The last two posts describe the current answers for me. The Salmon Berry's fuchsia faces remind me I am where they live, where I live as well. The wonderful thing about opening to the many versions of loving the contradition and the conflicts as well as asserting my own needs (over time) is the unexpected solution. Here, via the internet, I have a date with a group of Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders committed to learning by counting on the moon (Mahina). "We will be discussing the process of becoming Mauliauhonua." I'm guessing this means becoming grounded to this place, this Earth, this honua.

The context will be a contemporary space for learning ancestral practices. From the comfort of my Quonset Hut in the middle of the woods in the middle of a Salish Sea, I join in. On a Libra (relationship-focused!) Pete and I raise our hands ... the haole man and me and say, "Present!" But first, I'll need to take a nap, and get up for the meet-up at 10 PM which is past my usual moemoe time. Small price to pay:)

With this Libra Full Moon how do you find the balance? 

Every Step Forward Matters: Part II

Sorry for the very long pause between Part I and II. It's the way of life sometimes.

3. I got ANOTHER bladder infection.

I have a history with bladder infections. For years I have nursed myself with herbal remedies, homeopathic pellets off the shelf or sought collaboration with the experts -- naturopaths. The remedies have worked short term, or a few months, or until the next time my sweetheart and I make love.  This time the calendar turned from 2016 to 2017 I was in a lot of pain, was feverish alternating with chills. I made an appointment with my nurse practitioner who squeezed me for an appointment; she did a pelvic exam and conducted or sent out for a hand-full of tests. All of these tests were negative, showing no indication of infection. But still the pain continued.

I turned to the Ancestors and asked for help. They said, "Susun Weed." With Scorpio Spider senses on high I began researching. Susun Weed is a long-practiced herbalist and healer who teaches The Wise Woman Tradition. With the Ancestors' message I reserved two of Weed's books from our local library. It would be a week before the books arrived. Fortunately, one of Weed's first promises as a healer is to be accessible; and she's kept her promise. She describes herself as "The YouTube Herbalist" on the dozens of video presentations available online. I googled. I listened. I prepared. When her books arrived I began reading. From the first page of her newest book DOWN THERE Sexual and Reproductive Health The Wise Woman Way, Weed writes:

"This book speaks from the Wise Woman in me to the Wise Woman in you. (Wo/man inclues man, as you can see.) It is based on the belief that we are capable of observing our own body, heart, and mind, responding to the messages we receive, and caring for ourselves in a context of loving support and assistance. The Wise Woman Way nourishes health."

This tradition resonates strongly with me. I believe it. Weed asks at the bottom of that first page "Do you hear her singing? Do you feel her? Take her hand. Come." I did. The book DOWN THERE is an encyclopedia of information relating to sexual and reproductive health, laid out in layers of research and approaches with steps that begin Step O: "Do nothing." and ends with Step 6: "Break and Enter." I've found the help and guidance I needed and not the answers I expected. Therein lies the problem with my circular thinking: it kept bringing me back to exactly the same beginning.

So for the past several weeks we have taken those steps forward. On the Spiral Path it is the 13th Step that is the unexpected one. The one that turns a circle into an open-ended next. I put Susun Weeds poem about that 13th Step into the latest of my medicine stories (freshly ended, but the way! But don't spoil it for yourself if you have not read the bits before. Go here to start.).

The symbol of the Wise Woman tradition is a spiral.
A spiral is a cycle as It moves through time.
A spiral is movement around and beyond a circle, always returning to itself,
But never at exactly the same place. Spirals never repeat themselves.
The symbol of the Wise Woman tradition is the spiral.
The spiral is the bubbling cauldron.
The spiral is the curl of the wave.
The spiral is the lift of the wind.
The spiral is the whirlpool of water.
The spiral is the umbilical cord.
The spiral is the great serpent.
The spiral is the path of the earth.
The spiral is the twist of the helix.
The spiral is the spin of our galaxy. The spiral is the soft guts.
The spiral is the labyrinth.
The spiral is the womb-moon-tide mobius pull.
The spiral is your individual life.
The spiral is the passage between worlds: birth passing into death passing into birth.
The path of enlightenment is the spiral dance of bliss.
The symbol of the Wise Woman Tradition is a spiral.
Twelve is the number of established order.
One step beyond is thirteen, the wild card, the indivisible prime, the number of change.
Walk a spiral, you will inevitably come to the unique next step, the unknown, the thirteenth step, the opportunity for change, the window of transformation.
The thirteenth step creates the spiral. - THE WISE WOMAN TRADITION IS A SPIRAL by Susun S Weed

4. I enrolled and began studying 'Olelo Hawaii the Hawaiian Language via Niuolahiki Distance Learning  (in January). 

The self-directed course challenges me at every possible level and in all the best and the messiest of ways. Because the world of bits and bites, and codes made common for us barely cyber-literate I am able to pay a modest fee ($30.00 per module) to navigate the metaphoric and literal eight seas of the Hawaiian Island chain. Though these lessons can be done completely online without a text, I did purchase a text designed to compliment the coursework. From the first pages of Na Kai 'Ewalu.

"To the Student The title of this text book, Na Kai 'Ewalu (I do not have the Hawaiian keyboard built-into my computer, so will not be able to accurate punctuate the vowels.) refers to the eight seas that join the Hawaiian islands together like a lei. So important in their function of creating a whole from seperate pieces of land, Hawaii's seas are unfortunately often overlooked. Until recently, these eight seas provided the only means of communication between our islands and they are expected to take on more traffic in the future.
Any successful trip across our islands requires seriousness and a positive respect for their true nature. Never to be taken lightly, a trip through the eight seas of Hawaii is something very enjoyable, always offering a beautiful view of our islands."

My pace of learning to navigate these eight seas is slow, deliberate, and often distracted by the reality of my very haole (foreign) mundane life. My son asked me the other day while we chatted on the phone, "Don't you have any classmates?" "No," I answered. Although there are others online while I am, we paddle our virtual surfboards alone...mostly. My mother sits across from the keyboard, or sometimes I bring her framed photograph to be at my elbow so we both look at a lesson together. In spirit Ma keeps me rooted to the context she has always given me. I wish my history had been different, but that's like a time-traveler expecting to retrace history without tampering with the present; it can't be done. So instead I use the mythic writing I do to explore that territory crisscrossing time.

This step forward influences me perhaps more than any of the others, perhaps just as much as all the others. I see how being fed the context of 'olelo (Hawaiian language) oxygenates my brain and that affects my thinking. Bound with the new language of the Wise Woman Tradition nourishment takes on a full and unexpected multiplicity of forms. It doesn't balance me, nor does it fix me let me assure you of that! I am as whacky and curious as I ever have been, probably more.

Which leads me to the end of this long tale of two parts. I look forward to new menus of Artful exploration here at The Safety Pin Cafe with spring very truly setting herself into the Salish Sea where Pete and I do live. I do wish you a good and creative new season in whatever condition of health/wholeness/heartiness you find yourself. Every step does matter.

Happy Spring!