"Story Story Sunday" Fall Storytelling Event September 21, 2014

Storyteller

Mokihana Calizar

creator of The Safety Pin Café

 

Tells stories that hold life together

Sunday, September 21st, 2014

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM

at the South Whidbey Tilth Farmers' Market

2812 Thompson Road Langley
(CLICK FOR DIRECTIONS)

Join Mokihana and help apply the healing salves of story, chant, movement and laughter in this interactive production.

This Fall's program "Story Story Sunday" includes tales that recognize Raven of this Salish Sea space, stories of initiation from the storyteller's home-place Hawaii, an ancient Roman myth about clay and snippets from Mokihana's medicine stories "The Safety Pin Café Trilogy." Come to listen, chant and create simple instruments to call on the Ancestors to help us tap the common magic of Everyday.

Dress warmly just in case.

 

We will pass the hat when the tales are told.

Your Donations  go to the Good Cheer Food Bank

a place that holds life together for many of us,

season in and season out.

This is a Fragrance-Free Event.

Please come unscented: free of perfumes, hair product and essential oils.


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To Read Why & How we built a safety pin sort of life: go here
To Read What that life is like today: go here

 

Straw tails and fire

"Whoever has a tail of straw should not get close to the fire."

-a Latin American folk saying

My life is an amazing wild ride.

Chicken and raven teach me things that make the words of my elders all the more powerful. Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahele writes about the poetry and ancient genealogical chants of the Hawaiian world, "Over eons, each of the names in [this]genealogy has taken on varied forms to accommodate local metaphors. These are added at diverse areas of contact. Besides the primary forms of earth and sky, other forms such as spirits, humans, canoes, and sharks have been added to the complexity of the story.The insertion of multiple forms provides a mythical framework based on forms of nature ... in Western literary terms, as myth. But it is based on a foundation of elements that are natural and consistent in the Hawaiian world." -

Ka Honua Ola

With their examples the birds give meaning to the everyday experiences, and meaning to Mircea Eliade's statement "Western man will not be able to live indefinitely cut off from an important part of himself, a part that is made up of fragments of a spiritual history, the significance and message of which he is incapable of deciphering."

-Mircea Eliade Shamanism

Weather systems are shifting. The dry, hot summer is now cooling not timed to the calendar which marks Fall in September, the alder leaves are falling now, the rain and fog test our resilience and the question is: does it matter? Does what matter? Does it matter that weather is not nailed to a paper grid or a digital page that moves with animation? Regularity helps. Rigidity snaps me. I ramble on trying to tell the truth. "Whenever we pretend, edit, rehearse, perform, or withhold, we support the development of false self system. Through the false self, we develop the art of self-abandonment."

-"The path of the Visionary" The Four-Fold Way Angeles Arrien

I am an amazing wild ride, with tales of deep roots.

I am a canoe with memories as old as wind.

I am lizard who survives.

"Only one great thing"

"I think over again my small adventures, my fears, those small ones that seemed so big, all those vital things I had to get and to reach, and yet there is only one great thing: to live and see the great day that dawns, and the light that fills the world."

-Old Inuit Song

Grateful for the safety of my family, friends and communities of Hawaii, as the tropical storms blew through with little damage.

Faces at the table

Our long-time friend came for dinner and a visit this week. We have known each other since the early 1990's when we were both very involved with workshop creating and facilitating; training the world for a living. Between us there have probably been many thousands of people who have sat around tables or clustered in groups to explore, delve or been subject to our brand of teachings. Many events have changed those roles for us as we are now crones in our sixties and seventies.

Pete, my husband and I are studying the teachings of The Second-half of Life as described by Angeles Arrien. Through this exploration I am meeting 'the face I had before my parents were born' Angeles Arrien reminds me about. It's the face, the role, the me, that is the essence of myself without Ego's Face and the one where all faces/roles are integrated. As I have written before, as grief works through me, life and death has taken on a deeper meaning in this summer. I have Big Teachers guiding in this summer of grief: Angeles Arrien, my Brother David, my Cousin Cindy (all three passed this spring-summer); Ross Moss leads me more confidently through the dream time; this place in the woods comes to be with me for a fifth season. I read the words from Arrien's books, reflect on her questions and let the work work me. I practice with the ancient and original tools of magic: rattles, sticks, and meditations and find the faces of the child (who wishes to play more regularly ... Pete wants to be there, too!); the adult who explores creative ventures is good at that (she just needs to have the child along so both are acknowledged without exclusion); the elder is comfortable with silence and the wisdom that comes from the wind, changes in tree color, the voices of feathered cousins. (She is also glad to be makua and not trainer); the essence face is getting more and more visible and I think I saw her at the table the other day when my friend came for dinner and a visit. There was an elf wearing a blue knit hat next to her. They made quite a picture. My friend talked of many things when she came to visit; she left many gifts in the telling of story. I had not been face to face with her for two years, I looked at her closely that evening, soft to the exploration of her nose that slopes and is peculiarly positioned; I inspected the texture of her face, and her eyes which are absent of creases; her large and generous ears wore a chandelier of silver and violet stones; her hair was, as usual, tweaked a fresh color very becoming the positive self regard she is practicing these days.

It was the night of Lammas Festival when we sat, talked, ate fruit, flesh and grains of a good first harvest. And, the faces that were at the table? I believe those were our 'first faces' comfortable in the skin of the present. Great gifts for a midsummer's evening.

The magic wraps up in "The Party"

The third part in the trilogy of medicine stories from The Safety Pin Café is threading together nicely. I am have a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful season of summertime here in the woods of Langley. The Quonset Hut door is open to the sound of wind and the song of birds. Raven was very talkative earlier, and with a belly of lunch simmering nicely within I thought I'd encourage you to read Mend Meddle Magic with the bits laid down so far.

Here is a summary of the story thus far, laying out the threads with the characters old and new since that first season only a duck could love.

1. The Sweet Sisters have been introduced, their identity and character developed as 'crow sisters; Old Ones; elders by any standard; meddlers with their fingers in the lives of Alex, Pale, and the once-faceless woman Camilia DeSilva. They have called in Pueo to set Pale right, but Pueo has a mind to direct Pale left with questions that neutralize fear in the birthday girl.

2. The Faceless Woman, Camilia DeSilva has returned to Salish. Nearly distracted from her goal of reconnecting with the characters of The Safety Pin Café, her daughter Dani pins her to herself and now the future moves. Her story unfolding: she has made metaphorical honey with the help of the bees and is hand-stitching dresses she loves, and spreads the clothing around. Her addiction to alcohol is revealed, her recovery tested and in tact just for today. She has met new characters: The Branches, Antonio, Alex and The Sweet Sisters.

3. The children are introduced. Dani is a serious old soul with vision. Olivia is spunky, and curious about sexuality. Both of them spread the genes of one of the original characters (The Faceless Woman) and character development integrated over time is the theme here. We see the three faces of womanhood/personhood through Dani, Olivia and their mother. More about the Raven children is revealed, but is that enough about the changlings?

4. The Branches and their motel another layer of Nature and hospitality.

5. Pale's 80th birthday party depicted in the final installment "The party" will gather the essence of the medicine stories, weaving old stories with stories heard and told just the other day the other yesterday. Antonio has brought a chorus line of guests sure to create a romp of delight. Themes of human initiation and rituals of passage are experienced. Connectivity and legacy are played out through the generations of characters. The future is glimpsed, outcomes are potent. That installment is still in the making. Perhaps you have not yet met these characters and tasted the simple and complex soup of a story.

Curious now? The story is over here. It's a fun read, and fun write. Hope to find you in there with me.

Given: Sacrifices are necessary

"I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver." - Maya Angelou

Last night I was on the phone with my cousin Bryon. Our family is in the season of grief; first my brother David and then Bryon's wife Cindy. Many, many stories have surfaced, other stories have resurfaced as grief works its necessary remedies on our bodies, minds and souls. Pete, my husband observed with sweet acuity that my cousins are like my brothers and sisters. Yes, in all the meanings of the word, my cousins have been the brothers and sisters to me all my life. We were together as children when my parents were still alive offering Bryon and his siblings a complementary view of family. Ours was a different way. There are many boys and girls in my cousin's family, many variations on the theme of being human and in spirit.

With the passing of his wife, and my brother, the season of grief is working on us in different and complementary ways. My giant of a cousin threshing with the loss, normal could easily be abnormalized ... named irrational, and dangerous. Seen from a tight box, it would seem accurate. But, seen from the view of a larger view of legacy, the threshing work is the required flailing against the limits to find the essence, the meaning of losses. It is messy work, and all hands and feet are necessary. In our hour-long conversation my cousin and I went to the limits of normal and crossed the borderland. We are blood, we share legacy, and we also have room for transformation. I called him to grieve together, it was his wife's last request of me. "Maybe you and Bryon can grieve together," she said when last I spoke with her. I am big on keeping promises whenever I can. Through my personal work of recovery and soul retrieval, I have also learned when I cannot make promises. Sometimes, it is not just my personal promise that is being kept. Often it is the promise that souls know must be kept. In the promise-keeping the soul's demands heal across time.

Earlier this month I promised to commit myself to the study and practice of The Second-Half of Life. That is just where I need to be. I'm being initiated to the gates and rituals and clues to become more fully alive  at sixty-six. One of the major challenges with this elderwork study is to recognize and relinquish the Face of Ego. Oh boy, how the attachments to that face, those masks do cause a girl to cling. Being a Storyteller, I have a promise to use the crucible of story to transform. I am doing that here, and as I continue to write the medicine story and the installment "I'm the one." The job of the storyteller is to weave common everyday practices with knowledge of the elemental forces of Nature. Woven together with deft and meaningful metaphor the passing of wisdom becomes timeless salve. The seasons of birth, life, and death take on meaning. A Border Witch discovers the limit of her magic, and joins forces with something more. It's a story worth knowing.

Family came to visit

"When you plant a seed of love, it is you that blossoms" - Ma Jaya Sati

Nature, 'Ohana (family), Technology linked up for a few precious hours in our orchard yesterday. Life and death continues to be the theme of the season, we told stories of a loved one who passed after a long and valiant struggle to breathe. My cousin Cindy from Lanikai, O'ahu passed a week ago yesterday. It was Cindy and Bryan's Lanikai front yard that was our safe place during the months of living without home, but with a car we called home. It was Cindy who unabashedly introduced us to her neighbors when we rolled out from a night of sleep in our car, "These are our people!" Her daughter and Cindy's best friend arrived yesterday to celebrate a rite of commitment -- a wedding, and honored us with the first visit from 'ohana from Hawaii. Our son, Christopher has visited and been with us many times, but, as Pete said, "That's like he's coming home when he's here." We created sacred space in our woodland orchard to welcome our family, and remember a dear one with flowers, chant, stories, tears, laughs and good food. The raspberries and a few blueberries were ripe for gathering and much fun was had walking, gathering, munching and naming the la'au (growing things). Weaving the sadness into the lei of the day thanks to the technology of cybernetics and microwaves ('aue!) I saw pictures from home and we safely pinned what is important to our hearts and our souls. Mahalo Kaliko and Susie. Mahalo Cindy. Ahhh...

"Ua ola loki i ke aloha.
Love gives life within." - 'Olelo No'eau