Herbs, Medicine Cards and Conversation

 “Conversations are efforts toward good relations. They are the exercise of our love for each other. They are the enemies of our loneliness, our doubt and our anxiety. our tendencies to abdicate…If we attend with imagination and devotion to our conversations we will find what we need and someone among us will act—it does not matter whom—and we will survive.”

- From Horizon by Barry Lopez 

This three-part combination of herbs which we have been tending and living with, the drawings that make their way up from soulful places within me, and the potential for Talkstory or conversations such as Barry Lopez described feel just right. 

They may become the baseline menu at The Safety Pin Cafe. What do you think? 

Happy Saturday from the vardo on Ke Kuapa😘🌈🌺

La'au lapa'au

Medicine making time

It's a beautiful Monday in the Salish Sea. I woke ready to harvest the box filled with Skullcap. She is in full bloom. At the moment I am parked in our sweet safe place away from home ... Pamoja Place. With no lights on in the building, the community laptap is the light. Real sunlight comes through the windows in the Reading Room. A cool breeze finds me. Mahalo, Ka Makani!

I've yet to figure out how to download images and movies from our iphone to this laptop, so for a bit more use your imagination.

I spent a lovely hour or more this morning gathering flowering tops from the Skullcap. A baking pan filled with the blooms and leaves. I've made movies of the process, and sent them off to our people via other means (texts); they were received lovingly. Hurray!! 

One Day at a Time the vision and mission for The Safety Pin Cafe unfolds. 

1. Our first Weeds Walk took place on the 16th of July. Carter Brown my mo'opuna from Kipahulu, Maui joined me via FaceTime and we had a fun time!

2. The gathering of Skullcap for tea is being recorded onto the iphone, and sent to our loved ones for continuing blessings. Aloha aku. Aloha mai.

3. Instagram. I used my old account to post a story and share pictures with a few followers. It's a start for me.  I'm practicing being willing to be open to new actions, feelings, and healing.

I hopeful the trail of new technology will find its way to my dear old self. In the meantime, take good care. 

A hui hou,

Mokihana and Pete

We Weed Walked!

 Our first Weeds Walk was perfectomundo. It was the hottest day of the season so far but my broad brimmed hat and beautiful Pamoja Flower Power coverup were so helpful. Picture it? Okay 

My family from Kipahulu in the island of Maui showed up for the inauguration. My mo’opuna Carter and I walked, chatted and played games to connect moku to moku and heart to heart (island to island and heart to heart).

We have a virtual La’au lapa’au story growing and the spider 🕷 throws the net in so many ways:

The internet 

The Spider Man outfit Carter is always wearing 

Ku’uku’u the cosmic web maker 

Carter and I chanted E Ho Mai 

Pete and I chanted Mai ka nuu i akea 

Beautiful on purpose! All right! Aloha no!

Weed (s) Walk

 The moon is brightly lit! Twelve hours from now we will host The Safety Pin Cafe’s reopening with a walk about. A Weed Walk! 

“ What is a Weed Walk?” my friend emailed. I wrote her explaining that my gardens and this ‘aina this land we live on is filled with La’au kuahiwi … weeds. They grow where they want and move when they find a better situation. We’re inviting folks to meet and recognize them, and Talkstory about how to eat them and make medicine with them.

I never dawned on me people might think “Weed” as in marijuana. Until this moment. So I’ve been out under the light of the a’ole moon with my Sharpie and highlighters adding an “S” to my signs. There are 4 signs and a Drewslist post. I can’t correct the post and it’s too dark to correct the other two signs.

 Whoops here’s a chance to practice letting go 😁.

Woke with a fever

 “It does not matter how slowly you go. So long as you do not stop.” Confucius 

The body is abundantly wise. Rather than kill the heat riding in me I checked in with them (all my wizards) hunted up my bottle of Echinacea Root tincture (thank you Julie Nunn) squeezed three droppers full in a mug of water and drank.

We’re in this together the plant medicine and me. My longtime favorite astrologer, Elsa Panizzon, is writing about alchemy this morning. The Safety Pin Cafe is all about as alchemy. Accessing the essence, separating dross from gold; waking with a fever and becoming … beautiful on purpose.

Link to Elsa herehttps://elsaelsa.com/astrology/the-meaning-of-alchemy-in-everyday-life/

Read about Motherline Medicine from Green Witch Susan Weed here https://www.wisewomanmentor.com/blog/categories/motherline-medicine

E ola mau🤙

My joy takes nothing from you

 I miss blogging. Writing and publishing the stories has been my delight, and blogging offered that to me and thousands back in the day.

The title of this post is from the song Done by Canadian songwriter singer and seamstress Frazey Ford who I am currently obsessed with.

She has a sultry sound that lucked at lyrics like a mo’o taking care the water stays clean, or if it’s already rank she’s going sing through with a soulful grief till they’re healed.

Link to her https://www.frazeyford.com/ here. 

Good pickin’

 The raspberries are ripe over at our neighbors’ place, We had a date to pick them. 10 in the morning. So I made us a batch of French toast made with another neighbor’s abundance-Lunar Crest eggs, coconut milk and a generous dash of vanilla. I buy Essential Bread’s Pan du George cuz it’s the best price for an organic mostly whole wheat loaf; it goes a long way stretching our dollars.

Well fed and quenched on Comfrey and Linden infusions Pete and I joined our great pickings of ripe raspberries and gab! 

Without a doubt this life of giving and getting safety pins of connection is the finest example of aloha in action. Quarts of raspberries are freezing for a recipe of jam destined for the family in Kipahulu.

A bowlful sits on Hope’s desk where they’ll surprise her later. 

I’m not able to share pictures yet, you’re welcome to imagine the blessing.🅱️😘

We are stronger together

 Pete and I are still here. Behind the scenes of The Safety Pin Cafe, we have continued our journey, pausing often and find ourselves rooted in places we love. In fact, we are comfortably sitting in couches in the Reading Room of the community space called Pamoja Place. The occasional car passes along on Camano Avenue and I hear it through the open window as I write. Pete has a copy of The New Yorker in his hands. 

We are practicing being kupuna-in-residence here. Over the years of healing from the trauma of our flight from O'ahu more than 15 years ago, we have experienced many places, and possibilities. The creation of The Safety Pin Cafe, both the medicine story and this blog, were the first commitments to make Art from pain. It's a process and there are many templates.

These few paragraphs are the newest seeds for planting a perennial.

How to grow a perennial

Year One: Sleep

Year Two: Creep

Year Three: Leap 

It's Year Three. I'm imagining the flower growing stronger together ... with the community that grows here at Pamoja Place now.

Ku'e e Safety Pin Cafe.

... to be continued