Thursday, April 1, 2021

Hau'oli La Hanau, Vardo for Two ... 12 Years a home

 La Posada: The Welcoming Inn at the Side of the Road

A prayer from Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in her book Untie the Strong Woman

 

"Since time out of mind, 

forces rise up from the dark

spewing black sand everywhere

trying to douse The Light of the World ...

try to destroy the sons

and the daughters of the Light.

Sometimes, begging from door to door

is the only way

to find shelter for the Holy.

Even when doors slam shut,

one will open eventually,

And the firelight inside

Will jump through the dark,

So that light meets Light.

Like steel sharpens Steel.

Yet, even if no one comes,

Even if no one opens the door,

no one human, that is ...

Hold tight, for

angels will come then...

and using the key of Love,

all doors will fall open 

or else be locked securely

protecting all within ...

All this for you.

rather than against you.

for you who persisted,

you yourself now, and every day

being born as the i

at the beginning of the word 

miracle ...

In this way, you yourself,

in your own human and soulful ways,

are forever Mary's miracle child."


The Moon, Mahina, hides behind the shadows of the Alders as I chant to her, a chant that asks for the understanding hidden in the mele of the chant. With an intent to understand and give thanks to the home and the life she gives us, I called across the ravine and into the heavens.

In 2008 Pete and I lived in a kitchen. The basement of a friend's home was our launch pad. Pete built the home we know today in the backyard in a White Center, Washington (U.S.) neighborhood.

We were sick from environmental illness triggered by other peoples'  use of pesticides, and chemicals used every day.  From those times in that kitchen we would commit to building a home that would be gentle and caring of us which would also ask little from Honua; she has been extracted far too much already. There were few examples or plans to do that, so between us we imagined (dreamed), researched, prayed and found allies to create a small home and a world where we could live and thrive.



On April Fool's Day, 2009 Pete hitched up our home on wheels for the first time. Attached to a rented truck we headed for Tahuya on the Olympic Peninsula. We had friends willing and welcoming this very new life. It was a dream come true (with lots of hard work, and much more of that to come).





We have lived, learned and moved to many places on this Honua since that first night on a ledge over looking a pond filled with frogs in the springtime. The efforts to be who we are, different than many, and misunderstood or judged by most, continue to challenge us. That does not stop us. And it is sweetly fitting that on this April Fool's Day, twelve years later, we are preparing to move to a pond again. 

We are old, weathered by the work of believing we have a place, just as we are, and grateful to be enjoying life concentrated within the small space of this loving and giving home. She is plenty enough space to find who we really are: both individually and as a pair of very unlikely lovers. 

The network of stories that have grown from my discovery of 'the blog' are all over the Internet mycellium underground, overground, safety pinned as moveable and common. What a journey it has been! Myth or memoir the two entwine and I share it for that is my work: storyteller.

We began our day with a big bowl (two apiece) of oatmeal, seaweed, astragalus root and butter. And listened to the roots of Hawaii that sustain us with that special SWEET AND POWERFUL  taste of honey, called ALOHA.

If you're interested in catching up with our most recent storytelling? It's over here Once there, you could explore the newsletter blog and discover more.

Big aloha to you who have come to this blog over the years. Below? That's just the other day:)

"Carta Lanakila and Company" in the video means Pete and me are Tutus now ... the greatest adventure yet, we are grandparents.

Mokihana and Pete

Saturday, April 8, 2017

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VARDO FOR TWO!

I know, I know. I said 'Never more!' But I was wrong, and that's the truth of it. There's a new blog, a new spring and a birthday to celebrate.

Nana ke'ia ... Look here for a brand new blog ... At Home Over Time.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The grand experiment

The calendar year wraps itself into close, 2016 ends in a few days. The Lunar Calendar and Chinese New Year of the Rooster begin January 28, 2017. There is a season and reason for everything and for me the grand experiment of writing blogs is over for me. Hundreds of blog posts and dozens of medicine stories have helped me sort life on this planet. Setting up the many different versions of my stories, and observations have been as much healing salve a any prescription and probably much more effective. Blogs have been a blank palette to fill in so many different ways. I am tired now.

Makua o'o and my other blogs will now be places to find archive posts, and links to other resources (found on the sidebars). Thank you for coming to read the meandering tales and observations of time and circumstances over the past years.

I have created a website Yvonne Mokihana Calizar where all the blogs and medicine stories collect in one place. The grand experiment with blogging is pau, but still the coral polp grows.



A hui hou,
Mokihana 

Friday, September 30, 2016

Moving

Our golden wagon life rooted in the woods of Langley six summers ago. Today Pete hitched up Vardo for Two and began the inch-by-inch process of gently, very gently uprooted the sweet Gypsy style wagon. Like rubbing a precious genie's lamp for wishes and good fortune, that's what we did. The night photo about shows that the come along and Pete's cranking and prodding has our home half-way to there.

The wooden steps in the lower right hand corner will give you an idea of how far the vardo was moved. We'll sleep in the new space over night. In the next day or so I will be loading detailed maneuverings of Pete and his practical magic as we continue to journey a safety pin life.


Monday, February 1, 2016

Applied Astrology: Pluto Transits across the Angles







" First, this disclaimer: I use EQUAL houses, so when I say “angles of your chart”, that is exactly what I mean. I am referring to Pluto transits over the angles of your chart, where the angles are the same degree as your ascendant.
Pluto transits over the angles of your chart are invariably drastic and life-changing. For example, when Pluto crossed my midheaven,  my life took such a turn, I had to live underground for close to 10 year. Me! A person so social and outspoken. I was a person listed in the phone book by the time I was 17 years old, and all the sudden I ceased to exist in public (10th house) life and lie dormant for nearly a decade..." Elsa Elsa
Building a (new) home 
Vardo For Two on the ledge in Tahuya, WA. Our first stop, 2009

Eight years ago (2008) we began building a tiny home on wheels the one we would eventually call Vardo For Two. The process and the unfolding journey became a venture into both a new way of life, and the beginning of my blogging life. Intimately affecting this rebuilding was the study and application of astrology as a way to navigate and prepare, and if not prepare, at least learn to accept more readily life as it REALLY is.

Elsa Panizzon has and continues to be one of the foremost teachers in my astrological studies. From her daily blog, forum, workshops, and newsletters I have grown; she is my foundation from her teaching I makawalu (unfold) and create anew. I discovered ElsaElsa the same year we began building our tiny home on wheels.

I am a believer in the quality and value of place, and home. The chart for Vardo For Two is a living and breathing one, for a living and breathing life-giving Home with a capital 'H.'

NOW ...

I believe it's time to pull back in from my wanderings (writing of many words, stories, blogs) to assess the worthiness and strength of the foundations of my beliefs, motivations. Why now in particular? It has to do with Pluto transiting (moving over) the angles of my astrological chart.

I've posted the chart for Vardo For Two as a place to illustrate Pluto's movement. The chart shows that Pluto (indicated with a capital P in black) in the light blue circle within the chart, was closing in on my Midheaven (indicated with the capital letters MC). Keep in mind these positions indicated in black print are for 2008. Pluto crossed the angle of the Midheaven during this time.

The Midheaven is the place in a chart that is your public life. In the chart above Vardo For Two's MC is in the sign of Capricorn, and in the 9th House. The 9th House writes Elizabeth Rose Campbell "asks you to explore the truth that is so big it is written on our inner parts. It asks you to integrate those truths, to act upon your knowledge until it deepens and becomes wisdom. Yet wisdom has no shelf life. You must live it, internalizing this wisdom so deeply it encodes your very character. And then ask for more." Pluto transits over the angles are "invariably drastic and life-changing" as Elsa puts it.

The design, building and recreating a life in, and from, a tiny home less than 80 square feet in size has been a profoundly life-changing experience. We are six years into the living from it stage and the thing that strikes me most is something Elizabeth Rose Campbell writes about the activity that takes place in the 9th House. "Explore the truth that is so big it is written on our inner parts...integrate ... act upon knowledge ... until it becomes wisdom." And then she goes on to remind me that wisdom must be lived to become known. In 2008 we were beginning to explore the truth, more would be revealed; that is where we are now. More has been revealed and how well are those safety pins holding? Do they need to be moved? Replaced? Reinforced?

The people in the home

In 2008 when Pluto was approaching the MC and still in Vardo For Two's Ninth House in Capricorn, the small and mighty planet was half-way through the Fourth House for Pete my husband, and half-way through the Twelfth House for me. Our newly built lifestyle, and home on wheels was our foundation or Papaku from which we would unfurl or makawalu.

Again quoting from Elizabeth Rose Campbell, "The Fourth House; Home. The fourth-house ... encourages self-care from the root level up and describes your answers to the questions: Where is my home? Who is my family? Like the sign of Cancer and the Moon (which is Pete's Sun sign and ruling planet ... the Moon) which rule the fourth house, this life arena encourages profound sensitivity...The goal of the fourth-house arena is to create a well-made nest for any of these purposes: raising a family; self-care; nurturance from the root level up."

"Like the sign of Pisces, which encourages letting go, and the planet Neptune, which expresses soul, the twelfth house describes the homeland of intuition--the flow...It originates in the heart, not the head. It is connected to both your source and your destination... One of the biggest challenges of the twelfth house, ruled by Pisces and the planet Neptune, is understanding the difference between giving up and surrendering. Giving up is the abandonment of one's center and the capacity to respond. With that abandonment comes a loss of instinct. To surrender to a circumstance, even a difficult one, is a different dance entirely. You must retain self-love and self-respect through the surrender...Giving yourself up to the wrong habit or atmosphere is usually the result of a haphazard or nonexistent relationship with inner guidance...It becomes vitally important to have a method of picking up your guidance from the twelfth-house flow in a fully functional state so that you can implement it."

 Pluto's slow and steady forward movement


"Wherever Pluto is in your chart," writes Campbell, "it unveils your potential. It teaches you to claim your power and choose to change, even if you can't control every facet of the outcome. Your Pluto potential has been composting, building for centuries through your genes and ancestry. Now that compost is ripe and ready to fertilize your life, as an old self dies and a new one is born through Pluto."

In our case Pluto will cross my ASC, my ascendent during the next week and will move into Pete's Fifth House. The New Moon coming up Monday, February 8, 2016 marks the beginning of the Year of the Fire Monkey according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. There are many key moments to be awake to. Applying astrology to my life with Pluto as a focus, there are questions and answers to be asked and considered as this new lunar year begins.

I use Vardo For Two as a foundation to launch new beginnings, but, also appreciate that some old attitudes and practices need to be surrendered to make a truly fresh start. When Pluto finishes moving through Capricorn in 2023, it will move into my First House (fresh). That's still seven years away. But, Pluto's movement over my Ascendent, and my natal Capricorn Moon (emotions) is a current event.

Pluto's transit through my twelfth house has been difficult. Writing about it today is helping me to wrestle with the hard truths and the hidden (also a twelfth house character) struggles. Do I recognize the difference between 'giving up' and 'surrender' as a process, with Pluto half-way through the twelfth house? What about giving myself up to the wrong habit?

Enough for now, maybe more tomorrow.

Where is Pluto transiting in your life? Can you relate to this ramble?


Intuitive Astrology Follow Your Best Instincts to Become Who You Always Intended to Be by Elizabeth Rose Campbell is the source for the quotes used in this blog post. It's one of my most used books, and part of the small cache of books that have made the crisscross journey of life before and after building Vardo For Two.






Thursday, August 27, 2015

Late afternoon, Purple Hibiscus







Summer draws to a close by some measures, Bracken ferns fade into brown. Vardo windows are shaded like loaves of silver-wrapped packages to keep the inside cool. The potted Purple Hibiscus are a late summer honey pot for a happy bee. I revel in the blessing of Nature.

Summer Seven living in Vardo For Two a cozy safety pin of a nest where I learn the advantages of living small through observing the Beings who are small. 

Friday, June 19, 2015

He Inoa Na Jots

E'elekule
Hey old friend
nou e ko'u hoaloha
For you my friend ... 


We built Vardo For Two in the industrial town of White Center, Seattle. The life we'd known before was in need a major restoration. We needed magic. From the woods came a Forest Magician with life to share with us. Life unexpectedly wild, and upending. 

She lived and died wild, and wondrous. Adaptive and then in the last, most ready to run and fly wild.

To read the whole Name Song for Jots, written in 'Olelelo Hawaii (the Hawaiian language) by our son Christopher Kawika Brown