tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41317218831616014502024-03-13T21:17:13.428-07:00Vardo For Two Creating a life that is plenty enoughUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger474125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-11652576100794348112021-04-01T09:58:00.008-07:002021-04-02T10:45:14.105-07:00Hau'oli La Hanau, Vardo for Two ... 12 Years a home<p><b></b></p><blockquote><p><b> La Posada: The Welcoming Inn at the Side of the Road</b></p><p>A prayer from Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in her book <a href="https://www.soundstrue.com/products/untie-the-strong-woman">Untie the Strong Woman</a></p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><p>"Since time out of mind, </p><p>forces rise up from the dark</p><p>spewing black sand everywhere</p><p>trying to douse The Light of the World ...</p><p>try to destroy the sons</p><p>and the daughters of the Light.</p><p>Sometimes, begging from door to door</p><p>is the only way</p><p>to find shelter for the Holy.</p><p>Even when doors slam shut,</p><p>one will open eventually,</p><p>And the firelight inside</p><p>Will jump through the dark,</p><p>So that light meets Light.</p><p>Like steel sharpens Steel.</p><p>Yet, even if no one comes,</p><p>Even if no one opens the door,</p><p>no one human, that is ...</p><p>Hold tight, for</p><p>angels will come then...</p><p>and using the key of Love,</p><p>all doors will fall open </p><p>or else be locked securely</p><p>protecting all within ...</p><p>All this<i> for </i>you.</p><p>rather than against you.</p><p>for you who persisted,</p><p>you yourself now, and every day</p><p>being born as the<i> i</i></p><p>at the beginning of the word </p><p>miracle ...</p><p><i>In this way, you yourself,</i></p><p><i>in your own human and soulful ways,</i></p><p><i>are forever Mary's miracle child.</i>"</p></blockquote><p><i></i><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DcBZ2sbmtBw/YGXHSUmUXaI/AAAAAAAAJwY/RNIi7DOx5eYTq2maMdJKeVuIttVqBMe3ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/kitchenette.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DcBZ2sbmtBw/YGXHSUmUXaI/AAAAAAAAJwY/RNIi7DOx5eYTq2maMdJKeVuIttVqBMe3ACLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/kitchenette.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b9BKw_iugfg/YGXHUzFitaI/AAAAAAAAJwc/1xZYYB4uvaMucMvH7nOduX96UNyZPffSgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/blue%2Bsky%2Band%2Bkitchette%2B002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b9BKw_iugfg/YGXHUzFitaI/AAAAAAAAJwc/1xZYYB4uvaMucMvH7nOduX96UNyZPffSgCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/blue%2Bsky%2Band%2Bkitchette%2B002.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br />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).<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9KJ_osVrI8o/YGXJXb9xn_I/AAAAAAAAJwo/BUtS6VwWATMCgGO7z1o02v0RP-bkCb7jgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/on%2Bthe%2Broad%2Band%2Bin%2Btahuya%2B003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9KJ_osVrI8o/YGXJXb9xn_I/AAAAAAAAJwo/BUtS6VwWATMCgGO7z1o02v0RP-bkCb7jgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/on%2Bthe%2Broad%2Band%2Bin%2Btahuya%2B003.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3AsVXKExSA4/YGXJZsBuQ-I/AAAAAAAAJws/fefwJSllYPEmbg5wEOmjn11I1mcAgbRsQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/moki%2527s%2Bfirst%2Bnight.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3AsVXKExSA4/YGXJZsBuQ-I/AAAAAAAAJws/fefwJSllYPEmbg5wEOmjn11I1mcAgbRsQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/moki%2527s%2Bfirst%2Bnight.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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.<br /></p><p>We began our day with a big bowl (two apiece) of oatmeal, seaweed, astragalus root and butter. And <a href="https://www.facebook.com/halauohia/live"><b>listened</b></a> to the roots of Hawaii that sustain us with that special SWEET AND POWERFUL taste of honey, called ALOHA. <br /></p><p></p><p>If you're interested in catching up with our most recent storytelling? It's over<b><a href="https://naukahauoli.blogspot.com/2021/03/returning-to-pond.html"> here</a>. </b> Once there,<b> </b>you could explore the newsletter blog and discover more.</p><p></p><p>Big aloha to you who have come to this blog over the years. Below? That's just the other day:)<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 160px; text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwgnP-RjPDnI7xDxCqHtbJCiJAcu5rC1PT-xgH8-zeoJTeuOVUh6biQYvRRfk0Qdqc_PeCZO2RMatOlwNebVg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><p></p><p>"Carta Lanakila and Company" in the video means Pete and me are Tutus now ... the greatest adventure yet, we are grandparents.</p><p></p><div><div><div><div><p></p><p>Mokihana and Pete<br /></p></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-86005433249319531452017-04-08T13:07:00.000-07:002017-04-08T13:07:31.591-07:00HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VARDO FOR TWO!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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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.<br />
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Nana ke'ia ... Look here for a<b><a href="http://vardofortwo2.blogspot.com/"> brand new blog ... At Home Over Time.</a></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-49789609817881754822016-12-27T11:10:00.003-08:002016-12-27T11:10:49.067-08:00The grand experiment<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;">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.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;">Makua o'o and my </span><u style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;"><a href="http://thesafetypincafe.blogspot.com/" style="color: #838383; text-decoration: none;">other</a></u><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;"> </span><u style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;"><a href="http://vardofortwo.blogspot.com/" style="color: #838383; text-decoration: none;">blogs </a></u><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;">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.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;">I have created a website </span><u style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;"><a href="http://yvonnemokihanacalizar.blogspot.com/" style="color: #838383; text-decoration: none;">Yvonne Mokihana Calizar</a></u><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;"> where all the blogs and medicine stories collect in one place. The grand experiment with blogging is pau, but still the coral polp grows.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;">A hui hou,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-size: 15.4px;">Mokihana </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-80276944976520408672016-09-30T19:51:00.004-07:002016-09-30T20:04:14.630-07:00Moving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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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 <i>there</i>.<br />
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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.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-85827711611698605582016-02-01T16:02:00.001-08:002016-02-01T16:11:02.580-08:00Applied Astrology: Pluto Transits across the Angles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">" 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.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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..." <a href="http://www.elsaelsa.com/astrology/pluto-transit-to-natal-ascendant-descendant-midheaven-or-ic/">Elsa Elsa</a></span></blockquote>
<b>Building a (new) home </b><br />
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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.<br />
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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 <i>makawalu </i>(unfold) and create anew. I discovered ElsaElsa the same year we began building our tiny home on wheels.<br />
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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.'<br />
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NOW ...<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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<b>The people in the home</b><br />
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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.<br />
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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."<br />
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"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."<br />
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<b>Pluto's slow and steady forward movement</b><br />
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<b>"</b>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."<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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Enough for now, maybe more tomorrow.<br />
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<b>Where is Pluto transiting in your life? Can you relate to this ramble?</b><br />
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<b><br /></b><i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/665105.Intuitive_Astrology">Intuitive Astrology Follow Your Best Instincts to Become Who You Always Intended to Be</a></i> 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.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-83201236518738362092015-08-27T12:01:00.000-07:002015-08-27T12:01:06.431-07:00Late afternoon, Purple Hibiscus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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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.<br />
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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. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-3645481188684135722015-06-19T10:06:00.000-07:002015-06-19T10:06:00.254-07:00He Inoa Na Jots<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>E'elekule</b></div>
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<i>Hey old friend</i></div>
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<b>nou e ko'u hoaloha</b></div>
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<i>For you my friend ... </i></div>
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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. </div>
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She lived and died wild, and wondrous. Adaptive and then in the last, most ready to run and fly wild.</div>
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To read the whole Name Song for Jots, written in 'Olelelo Hawaii (the Hawaiian language) by our son Christopher Kawika Brown </div>
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<b><a href="http://www.makuaoo.blogspot.com/2015/06/mele-popoki-he-inoa-na-jots.html">click here.</a></b></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-13698029742083183642015-02-26T07:27:00.000-08:002015-02-26T07:27:13.279-08:00Grounding dreams, celebrating community, welcoming the New Lunar Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Gung Hee Fat Choy, Happy New Lunar New Year of the Green Goat/Sheep/Ram.<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> "When the world was new the Jade Emperor created a calendar. Twelve animals were chosen for each of the twelve years...Ram was chosen for his courage." - from <em><strong><a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8234-1385-0">The Rooster's Antler's</a></strong> a tale of the Chinese Zodiac</em></span></blockquote>
Our computer is once again occupied by a bug that creates chaos with software; I cannot load photos using Blogger (it works this post). But, there are ways around that and in my primitive way I pin together methods on the border and offer you a way to see how Pete and I continue to ground our dreams, celebrate community and welcome the Year of the Goat/Sheep/Ram.<br />
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If you're curious<strong><a href="http://www.makuaoo.blogspot.com/2015/02/celebrating-community-welcome-year-of.html"> LINK HERE</a></strong> to see our friends and community telling stories, making rattles, and dancing the Blessing Dance to feed the hungry ghosts and make space for joy, Grace and respect for place.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-29454265138780785492014-11-24T11:08:00.000-08:002014-11-24T11:08:42.464-08:00Vardo first ... then the community Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When market season ended, and harvest season began Pete and I began to dream again <br />
... of community and a place to gather</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dreamers have a pre-disposition to see magic in the most unexpected places, or see the multiple universes potent in the everyday. Here we are day dreaming of a winter home for The Safety Pin Café. A space and place where <em>Sensitives </em>can gather to tell stories, sip hot teas and laugh at the unpredictably weird words that come from between the borders and out the cracks.</td></tr>
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Our South Whidbey Tilth community has given us the nod, and is receptive to our vision to enclose the existing Pavilion (the space pictured above) as a fragrance-free and chemical-free space for us to continue to share the medicine of story! Using the years of experience we have gleaned from a life that we thought at first might do us in, we will grow the fairy tale and share what we have learned because we built a Vardo for Two. To read the process of collaborating to involve our local Tilth ...<br />
<strong><a href="http://www.thesafetypincafe.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-safety-pin-cafe-in-winter.html">GO HERE</a></strong>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-62894610342802492712014-11-16T07:36:00.000-08:002014-11-16T07:43:54.315-08:00Vardo first ... then the community<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I juggle writing content between the three blogs The Safety Pin Café, Makua o'o and Vardo for Two like I walk between the three separate tiny houses that make up home; wake up in Vardo for Two, walk to the Quonset and have a cup of hot tea, walk to the Hale for a hot shower or wash the dishes. Not unlike walking from one end of a house, or through a hallway except that our hallway is the forest floor and our ceiling the canopies of pine and fir up a hundred feet tucked beneath Earth's sky, the stars, Hina and the Sun. Today, the Sun is just beginning his brighten through the trees. The Quonset's heater is working overtime to keep the kitchen-writing room-kitty space warm. What it will really need is for me to start cooking something to get the heat going. But. For now I munch at an apple crisp and cold from being stored in a box outside. It's probably in the high twenties now. Cold for a Hawaiian. The rest of this post will lead you to a piece of writing that expands upon this juggling experiment we began when we first dreamed up Vardo for Two. It is truly an experiment in living and deeply digging into the potential that so often appears as a knot or cluster of knots with no solution but to abandon the mess -- leave it for someone else to sort out, or cut the tangle and if you're lucky there's still enough left over to start again. <br />
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Kalei Nu'uhiwa one of my favorite Hawaiian scientists and teachers is fond of saying (well she's fond of saying quite a few things but for now ... ) "I don't know about you all but I love chaos." In this <strong><a href="http://vimeo.com/36586470">video</a></strong>, and presentation at the 2012 'Aha Wahine (Womens' Gathering) Kalei expounds on the process of creating sacred space. Specifically she describes the rituals and foundations for women's role in creating sacred space. We Hawaiian have a huge capacity for embracing multiplicity: we see the connectivity of seemingly dis-similar events. What Hawaiians, a people bred on making sense of life with what is (through keen observation and documentation) practice is a highly evolved sense of community. Nothing and no one is an orphan, what happens here will and does affect something there. Our creation story, the Kumulipo begins in darkness with the coral naming the seeds and the birthing from the seed polyps. From the sea, to the land. From darkness into light. From Po to Ao. Over time. Every thing is named. Every birth is recorded. From chaos comes order. From the knot of potential everything is possible.<br />
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From The Safety Pin Café ... <br />
"Five years ago (2010) my husband Pete Little and I found the South Whidbey Island community. Our former life was being rebuilt; we had to dig deeper for people, place and values to thrive in spite of a medical diagnosis with one basic 'cure': "<em>avoid almost everything</em>!" That's a bit of a stretch but not much of one. The short story is I was diagnosed with MCS Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, or Environmental Illness in 2007, pesticides, chemicals and common products of the everyday 21st century are the primary sources of harsh and often debilitating reactions. My immune system was unable to cope, or restore health. A house or public spaces? For years those were "no-can-dos". In 2008 we learned what materials were less toxic and lessened the body's burden brought on by exposures; we experimented and tested how to build a tiny movable space to live in and regain wellness. Then began the journey to become part of a community. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8WfKvGyjWuA/ScgrrD8NDxI/AAAAAAAAAfk/iiFIUwxplK0/s1600/feng%2Bshui%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bvardo%2Band%2Btrust%2Bwater%2B006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8WfKvGyjWuA/ScgrrD8NDxI/AAAAAAAAAfk/iiFIUwxplK0/s1600/feng%2Bshui%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bvardo%2Band%2Btrust%2Bwater%2B006.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Above: Pieces of cloth from an earlier time are being reworked, <br />
and become something beautiful in a new life freshly in the making.<br />
Below: The sign says it all. We learn to live with Peace in our loyal 'Scout' the Subarus and discover how much is enough while remembering who and what is really important</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qsjOU-LKLy8/SSrlQC6GFqI/AAAAAAAAAKs/YYmELrWx09g/s1600/Photos%2Bon%2Bthe%2Broad%2Bplus%2B005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qsjOU-LKLy8/SSrlQC6GFqI/AAAAAAAAAKs/YYmELrWx09g/s1600/Photos%2Bon%2Bthe%2Broad%2Bplus%2B005.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We lived from this faithful Subaru and from it, we learned how little was necessary, and how much could be had with what was at hand. The photo below is an early stage Vardo for Two porch when we were parked on a ledge in the woods<br />
in early summer, 2009.<br />
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In the summer of 2010 we found a place in the woods of Langley to park our Vardo for Two. Life began to re-fresh knowing we had a home. That same summer we found the South Whidbey Tilth and Farmers' Market. At first, it was the companionship and laid-back atmosphere that made us feel at home. Then, we discovered Tilth's history as a place unsprayed with pesticides for three decades. Our shoulders relaxed, my immune system calmed for the first time in three years, we began to root, volunteer, share what we have learned about fragrance-free and chemical free practices and become part of the community.<strong> </strong><em><strong><a href="http://www.thesafetypincafe.blogspot.com/">Link here</a></strong> to read the full post, and see how the untangling of potential and the belief that everything is connected just keeps happening. Like the man said, "If you build it they will come."</em><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-67697025792672347802014-10-24T03:32:00.000-07:002014-10-24T03:35:00.436-07:00Feed the wolf, feed the dream<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NIJwlXDd758/VEomgRjqFuI/AAAAAAAADa4/OCKxyoQ7hKY/s1600/hedgespoken-by-starlight-fi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NIJwlXDd758/VEomgRjqFuI/AAAAAAAADa4/OCKxyoQ7hKY/s1600/hedgespoken-by-starlight-fi.jpg" height="265" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.intothehermitage.blogspot.com/2014/10/hedgespoken.html">HEDGESPOKEN</a><br />
CLICK!<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">A very special pair of dreamers and weavers of magic are growing an off-grid Theatre for the Imagination. Artist and sister traveler Rima Staines, one of the early supporters of my life in Vardo For Two, and her poet-mask maker-storyteller husband Tom are conjuring up their life dream. A big, beautiful, fully-lived artist and storyteller family is imagining Hedgespoken. Though I am not very actively updating this blog, it seems many curious and imaginative souls with their hearts bred with similar stirrings as Rima and Tom, and me and Pete come here for inspiration. Thank you, and I do so hope Vardo for Two feeds the wolf -- the wild god -- who makes life full for you. Read Tom as he feeds the wolf, the Wild God <strong><a href="http://coyopa.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/sometimes-a-wild-god-2/">for a taste</a></strong> of who this storyteller is.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Rima and Tom have set up a grand stage calling on all who speak the language of that wild and magical, uncompromising, Earth Mother and Sky Father connected spirit. They have an INDIGOGO project to help raise $ and support for the home and circus of wheels pictured below. Click on the link below the beautifully rendered Rima drawing, and see what they have tossed into the Global Jet Stream of imagining life on the planet. Support them how you are able, and follow the path of dreamers who live their talk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Good luck and just the right amount of copper, and pennies, and pounds, and love </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">to Rima and Tom!!</span></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-73615827574625511702014-08-29T14:14:00.003-07:002014-08-29T16:44:11.178-07:00"What is a very long time?" <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"Geeeeooo is the Gnome of Slow Process. How long is it going to take for that water to wear that rock away? How much has that mountain grown (or eroded) in the last millennium? Geeeeeooo is there watching attentively, making certain that things don't happen too fast, resulting in a slip-shod job...Geeeeeooo is also the master of the clarification process whereby we let something sit quietly while the Impurities slowly settle themselves out, allowing the substance to purify itself in time."</div>
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-<em><a href="http://www.worldoffroud.com/books/faeriesoracle.php">The Faeries' Oracle</a></em>, Brian Froud and Jessica Macbeth<br />
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The long dry summer has brought with it many cycles, interior ones as well as the seasonal ones. The ones that are visible to us collect at our feet, the alder have loosened their grip on their leaves with more of the brown-edges on the forest floor than on their slender branches. But on the other side of the woods down where the chickens root and scratch for morsels the old peach tree has plumped fruit as big as baseballs. We gather some of them for juicy treats, and the robins save us a few in spite of their greedy appetites for all things sweet. Tendrils of pine and hemlock, cedar and fir parachute slowly in swirls and land in your tea water, or hide in your breakfast if you are munching at the orchard table. Down the hill from us where the community garden and local farmers have things green, and roots red and orange the food from dirt to table feeds us day after day. We give thanks to the many hands that plant, weed, wash and bag vegetables. Pete has firmly planted himself as a volunteer of major proportions in those gardens, and the Food Bank which serves our South Whidbey community. The seasonal change of rootedness is one of those visible ones, and part of the "clarification process whereby we let something sit quietly while the Impurities slowly settle themselves out, allowing the substance to purify itself in time," that Jessica Macbeth writes about in the wonderful book <em><a href="http://www.worldoffroud.com/books/faeriesoracle.php">The Faeries' Oracle</a></em>. It has been a while since I've come to the blank pages of my original blog Vardo For Two. Closed the doors to let things, and life settle themselves the season's change has me on the virtual porch of this dear space once again. <br />
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The temperature cools off the woods now, bare feet chill without socks and my hooded sweat shirt no longer hangs on its summer hook. Maybe its that nip of cold at my toes that reminds me of the many worlds that make for a full and de-<em>light-</em>ed life: there are warm hoodies to slip cozy and comfortingly around me. There are magnificent and tiny gratitudes to express as we look at the journey of living in and with small spaces in a grand world, on a globe spinning miraculously in space. Autumn's approach brings with it a quickening alerting us to the needs we must address before the rains come and the season of mold and damp changes our world. We are cleaning and clearing our spaces; we have learned over the past five years what that means for us, and how we must go about things. If there is one lesson that we repeatedly practice it is resourcefulness. We have created a Safety Pin Café born from the pathways to and from the building of the tiny wheeled home we live in today. "Small efficient and moveable" a Safety Pin Café life-style has woven itself into magical stories and a form of art that fuels me, roots me as storyteller and sensitive being. To make sense of loss we human beings learn, among many other things, to let go. When we began building our moveable life we were doing it as a creative solution to the loss of turf (no space was safe), and in metaphorical and literal ways we had become the faceless man, and the faceless woman invisible to the culture because we could<strong><a href="https://reshelter.org/articles/a-gypsy-life/"> <span style="color: #e06666;">no longer fit in the faces</span></a></strong> we once wore. Much has changed since our first night of blissfully safe and satisfying sleep in our Vardo for Two. We have moved along, stopping and starting up again feeding on the generosity of friends, and the company of guidance we would come to know as most resilient and sustaining. The worlds of 'aumakua (family gods), the animal guardians (Raven, Osprey, squirrel), the Plant World (Pine, Cedar, Fir, Madrone, berry, moss) and the Elementals (the wind, clouds, atmosphere) and the Universe (the sun, moon, planets, stars) have made themselves palpably present in our everyday. These resilient companions made a space for us to feel safe long enough to pin the goodness of Grace back into the places of loss, teaching us slowly, that permanency is the illusion, and common magic ... a small space ... could be just enough.<br />
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Living in small spaces, we learn what is valuable. Literally, we look at where our small spaces are today. The <a href="http://homesteadhouse.ca/products/milkpaint/index.html">Homestead House Milk Paint</a> has held up beautifully. We've never had to repaint it, but every year since first we painted (Summer 2008) we take a diluted solution of vinegar and water and wipe down the mold from the winter's wet and cold.This year I'm looking at places that are showing wear; milk paint literally wears away like all things natural. There are spots where the milk paint is gone and the oat shows through. I stenciled the back wall of our vardo with a contrasting milk paint. The Hawaiian fern (laua'e) painted shades of green is wearing off. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about that yet. (Our homepage of Vardo For two shows that stencil. I love how the native ferns in the woods where we have lived for four years show up to be with the laua'e ... sweet diversity!) We chose beeswax over any other coating option because of its low impact on my health, as well as the environment. We have no regrets! The process of wiping down the mold, inspecting the milk paint and re-waxing the exterior is not difficult but it does require consciously timing the work; if I am doing the work I wear a mask and goggles; and, you need to do this while there is SUN. Milk paint will go on and dry faster with at least two days of sun, and the wax will spread easier in this temperature as well. The waxing is a two-part rub on and wipe off excess process.<br />
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Earlier this week we had to remove the four year old put-together-sink in the Quonset (the 'kitchen' and writing house and second space we built three years ago) because over time, the wooden framework became a mold generating unit, and a trigger for asthma. It was not a planned change, but life is an experiment. When I think one solution will be permanent, Nature will show me everything changes. There is a transitional phase going on now. We are back to what we know we can do, and that is to set up a temporary outside cooking and the clothing washing sinks double for dish washing. We have purchased a stainless steel prep-sink to replace the old, but metal is processed with some very nasty and toxic sealant. The sink is being timed-out: Pete will wet sand-paper the surfaces and air the nasty stuff out for as long as it takes for me to tolerate it. As I write, the first raindrops are falling. Our temporary kitchen arrangement will need to morph today -- make that, now! Pop up the umbies. Umbrella Season fast approaches.<br />
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I'm back to the keys after moving things from there, to the no-longer-needed places, and finally to the next-best-place for now. The rain is gentle and small. We have a little more time to move the safety pins and hold life together in a common and magical temporary. Pete is racking down the walking paths, laying in more pea gravel for fall and winter. A new arrangement for preparing and washing up dishes will settle in for the time being. Later in this month my husband Pete and I will set up The Safety Pin Café for a Storytelling Sunday. I will tell stories about the guardians of this place; weave the myth and metaphor of my po'e kanaka roots (Hawaii) and invite the audience to help with the application of the healing salve of story. With the years of practice making up classroom setting using this and that, our audience will join in with their 'Gah, gah, gah' voice of Raven; make rattles from bottles and beans and clack sticks to call on the Ancestors for help with the everyday magic of living. I have rooted in this Salish Sea space enough to feel safe in my skin thanks to the oasis of a home Vardo For Two. I am re-infused with the passion for storytelling making sense of the harsh aspects of loss. It's medium to slow this healing process. Our new sink may have to wait, and sit in the orchard through rain and wind letting Nature neutralize the incredible armor of chemicals we humans have concocted. In the mean time, I'll hope to see faery Geeeeeoo the Sloow and his compadre tinker with that toxic armor, making silliness of the process while singing to me to slow down and <span id="goog_1672246274"></span><a href="http://thesafetypincafe.blogspot.com/p/medicine-stories.html"><span style="color: #e06666;">keep writing and telling those stories</span></a> <span id="goog_1672246275"></span>about safety pins, and faeries, and journeys that mend or meddle or snap at magic.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-23275303855393286832014-01-12T12:37:00.000-08:002014-01-12T12:37:04.776-08:00History<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Please enjoy the history and the resources we're written about, and shared during the years of building and learning to live a simpler life in small spaces. This blog will be mainly an archive of what we've learned, with infrequent new posts. Your comments are welcome and will be moderated and posted. Going forward the writing and blogging I do will fill the pages of my other blogs:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.makuaoo.blogspot.com/">Makua O'o</a> is my primary blog</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.thesafetypincafe.blogspot.com/">The Safety Pin Cafe</a> is where storytelling and magic are woven into mythic memoir, cultural adventure and time-traveling</div>
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All the best for a great year 2014,<br />
<i>Mokihana and Pete </i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-76269699094480384422013-12-31T09:39:00.003-08:002013-12-31T09:39:40.118-08:00Happy New Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-81162379034170242582013-12-15T09:53:00.000-08:002013-12-15T09:53:25.201-08:00Vardo: metaphor and mythic practice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #044984;">"What I love about your vardo metaphor is
it gives people like you and me that emotional outlet to feel connected
to a nomadic life, to the Earth, to feel our feet planted on the ground
while our soul travels the planet. It allows us to rise up and transcend
the prison – or cage as you say – of MCS and create something more
powerful for ourselves. Beautiful. This is why reading your blog made me
cry! It speaks to that part of me, on a very deep, deep level. This is
the power you have – anyone has – by following their truth and putting
it out there. You don’t know how many others you will affect, and in
what ways.." - <a href="https://reshelter.org/articles/a-gypsy-life/">Julie Genser</a></span></blockquote>
When Julie Genser, creator of the on-line community <a href="http://www.planetthrive.com/">Planet Thrive</a> interviewed Pete and me in 2009, life in a vardo was a new experience. Years in the making, the fact remains, we were new to what living in a vardo for two would be. I am an artist and writer and count those names as benefits, gifts, that I eat up and give up just as I am learning the trees and I give one another gifts. The Tall and The Small Ones (the forest) fill the island upon which we live with oxygen, lots of it. In turn, we inhale the gift, the oxygen, and give back carbon dioxide. They need it as we need oxygen. Now, the science of that exchange is not something I came up with myself. Research, that is the Tarot that feeds my knowledge. What does happen as we live a day a night, a season, a year in the forest from Vardo For Two is the experience of feeling how interconnected we are with all of it. My culture of Hawaii allows me to believe that in my every where within, and when the logic of the capitalist culture spins me for a loop I hold on to my metaphoric, mythic and real-life digging stick to ground me what I know beyond logic. We are five years in the practice and metaphor of living from a Gypsy-style home. We have grown older and the inconvenience of washing laundry by hand and being sensitive to the many smells of a product-heavy society wear on us, but so do the same product wear on the birds, the bugs, the ground, the water. What happens <a href="http://thesafetypincafe.blogspot.com/2013/09/fiction-and-poetry-are-doses-medicine.html">when the wear happens</a>?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In many shamanic societies, if you came
to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited,
or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: When did you stop
dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted
by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory
of silence?" - <a href="http://www.gabrielleroth.com/" target="_self">Gabrielle Roth</a></blockquote>
Earlier this year my response to the wear-and-tear was to make more magic, and myth of the life Pete and I live. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Join Mokihana Calizar for the inauguration of the Safety Pin Cafe on
October 6 at the South Whidbey Tilth Farmers' Market. This two-hour
event begins at 11 a.m. with a haunting and healing Hawaiian chant,
followed by sharing stories, art and music--fold an origami cup as a
symbol of how we can support one another--enjoy cinnamon toast, a symbol
of safety and love. Mokihana has written about journey through illness
from chemicals ubiquitous in the modern world using myth, metaphor and
ancestral memory to create a tale and medicine story. She has found
safety on Whidbey Island and has turned a corner toward regaining her
health. She acknowledges the South Whidbey Tilth campus as a safe
space--fragrance and chemical free." - from <b>South Whidbey Tilth Newsletter--August/September 2013"</b></blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Medicine Wheel from The Safety Pin Cafe</td></tr>
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The ups and downs of life in this human body is learned daily. Some practices are consistent, but not constant. Not even the moon upon which I count on consistently, is not constant; she changes from night to night. Some days I have a worldfull of energy, other days I am <a href="http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/wpress/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/">without spoons</a> to serve a moth. One of the practices that has kept me grounded and able to travel in and out of spaces that I can't step into in 'the flesh' is the artist's practice suggested and taught by Julia Cameron. I've been reading and writing from her book<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Artists-Way-Every-Day/dp/1585427470"> ARTIST'S WAY Every Day</a>. Today's reading for December 15th is this:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"As an artist so much of my life is determined by the size of my imagination. If I am making something big, and making it daily. I can perhaps live somewhere small. I can sit at a desk that faces a wall and tap words into space and my world is still large enough. I am more than my circumstances, more than the cage of my environment. There is a dignity inherent in making art, a filament of largesse and generosity, a connection to something better and brighter than myself. "You do not own me," I am able to say to the walls that enclose me. And yet, I must learn to love my walls."</blockquote>
Few people really know how we live here in the tiny spaces of vardo, quonset, and hale (wash house) but some do. I weave the myth, live the metaphor or switch it up and live the myth and weave the metaphor loving the walls and pushing from them sometimes to make something from them.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pRxexQKDatI/Uq3rzCtqEPI/AAAAAAAAC4k/D2itwg3y9_o/s1600/a+boost+of+magic+for+solstice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pRxexQKDatI/Uq3rzCtqEPI/AAAAAAAAC4k/D2itwg3y9_o/s400/a+boost+of+magic+for+solstice.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preparing for Winter Solstice and the promise of more light</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.gabrielleroth.com/" target="_self"></a>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-11501002289479204012013-12-02T15:45:00.000-08:002013-12-02T15:47:10.044-08:00New Moon Shadows<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PktnVkS2jEI/Up0Zg1UHpwI/AAAAAAAAC2c/60FUyEu6iwc/s1600/new+moon+shadows3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PktnVkS2jEI/Up0Zg1UHpwI/AAAAAAAAC2c/60FUyEu6iwc/s400/new+moon+shadows3.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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The sun played brightly with the wall of yellow, sending shadows of string, and charms, limbs bare, a forest and trunk slender onto its face. Another ocassion for noticing that the moon can send her message, her tattoos, into the day while others miss it, some have eyes that love that sort of message.<br />
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<a href="http://vardofortwo.blogspot.com/2009/03/building-vardo-making-rope-hanging-door.html"><i>Look here for the door early on. </i></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-15764502096867929422013-11-29T12:39:00.000-08:002014-01-25T04:16:47.664-08:00Let's see how well we are<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The safe oasis room on wheels became the right answer for us when our
savings and resources could no longer pay the asking price for renting
unsafe space and gravity was working against us as well. We are aging
faster than we can continue to recover from Diaspora. The small space
we have built is what we could manage and afford to build. If the
choices of others affect us, we’ll move our home. What it boils down to
is this:<b> the inconvenience that make up our daily kuleana (Hawaiian
word for responsibility) today is no less inconvenient than Earth’s
endurances. </b>We have admittedly been part of the problem when it comes
to living with environmentally triggered illness. Now we have a chance
to be part of the solution. Let’s see how well we do." - <i><a href="https://reshelter.org/articles/a-gypsy-life/">from the July, 2009 Interview "</a></i>A Gypsy Life: Notes from the Diaspora" <i><a href="https://reshelter.org/articles/a-gypsy-life/">with Julie Genser of<b> Planet Thrive</b></a></i></blockquote>
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We found The Egg and Berry Farm in the summer of 2010. Within weeks Pete found gates to build, and places to use his drill and his inimitable humor. This is him and Eileen (1/2 of a pair), and the foundation of the "intentional community" we had imagined. We share 5 acres of woods and 'aina with these women. The relationship we have with them evolves and we all learn to be the best we can be; and practice acceptance and forgiveness when it's a day when we are being human.<br />
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Time has been softening the ground of our being allowing Pete and me to root and build other tiny spaces as gently as we possibly can. The Hale (pronounced ha-lay) pictured above is a metal wash house with hot water, a shower and a double stainless steel sink we use to wash our clothes(by hand with a washboard and a hand wringer). My sewing machine has a place of honor in the corner just inside that drain pipe. There's nothing I love better than a space for stitiching!<br />
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To the right the Quonset is our cooking and eating hut, and the writing/computer space. It's also JOTS hang-out, sleeping room and all around get your rubs and company place. Like the VFT the Quonset is 12 feet long and 8 feet wide. <br />
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We have four chickens who root around the lower half of the orchard, and give us fresh eggs. We used to live with ducks, too. But no longer. The chickens teach us a lot about being, and becoming dependent; and the ducks taught us about dying and loyalty and I wonder about "animal husbandry" now. Domesticating animals, enclosing them (and us). It's a subject that is tickling at my curiosity. I've not yet come to many conclusions. But wonder about domesticating.<br />
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JOTS is the real mistress of the tiny spaces. Above, the vardo porch is one of her familiar lookouts. She was sent to keep watch, and we are the lucky ones. Below, it's her first winter (2008). She found us and nestled her way into a box warmed by a wool blanket and Christmas tree lights.<br />
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This fall I took a view of the yellow leaves that brighten the woods with their seasonal magic. Taken from the corner of VFT, the Tall One (Grandmother Pine) anchors us When we first arrived it was she I chanted to specifically, asking permission to live among them. She said, "Yes." The garage (with the chimney that does not get used) provides the attachment wall for The Hale, and the rain barrel catches water.<br />
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Thank you girls!<br />
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The VFT roof and new canvas porch awning gets covered with pine and fir needles, Pete's sweeping and lifting that chin for the Raven to see.<br />
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We're grateful and humbled for the life we live. The tiny spaces we live in are small in comparison to the woods and the Nature that allows us to be here. I'm reading a good book that I'm sure to blog about before too long. It's <a href="http://philipshepherd.com/">Philip Shepard's </a>book<b> New Self New World.</b> This is one of those books that offers turn-on-your-head redefinitions; like the difference between "being tired" versus "being exhausted; another loop for throwing at Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest"; and a chunk of consideration for domestication of humans and farming and animals. All of it suits my Scorpio curiosity, and my habit of digging around.<br />
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Onward on Route 66, a highway I am told by one who has spent much time on it, <a href="http://planetthrive.ning.com/forum/topics/vardo-for-two-re-opening-my-first-blog-after-a-2-5-year-hiatus?commentId=3325958%3AComment%3A329507">"Metaphoric or real, it's a great highway."</a> <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-4376574744653401542013-11-27T08:05:00.002-08:002013-11-27T20:00:32.697-08:00Can you live from a cracked bowl?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"The six saimin bowls were stacked as they always are in an upright
pillar one bowl nestled into the other. With time the nicks had grown
but she never replaced them. Her company, and her family never minded.
As a living philosophy the witch kept to her mother's original spell,
"People don't come to visit my things; they come to visit me." I think
it a spell because in her lifetime those sorts of people were the only
ones to visit her. Pale's thick tea mug was emptied of the strong sweet
chai, morning was bright with winter sun and only the hum of her
computer broke the quiet. She had been up for hours stitching the small
pouches that would hold a bit of magic and a few words. There was a
birthday party later today but something needed to be stirred together
for dinner.<br />
Soup? Rising to consider what she could fill the bowls with Pale ran
her small hands along the side of the pillar remembering most of the
occasions which left the nicks or chips. Lifting the top bowl a thin
but growing crack etched from the lip to about midway. "Can you live
from a cracked bowl?" She thought aloud. The image of Max, her godfather
rose from the bowl like the genie of Aladdin. He said, "I know a story
that might answer that. Care to hear it?" The Border Witch smiled at the
question then laughed at how stories come to a storyteller. "Let me
fill this tea cup, Uncle.<a href="http://mokihanacalizar.blogspot.com/"> </a><a href="http://www.mokihanacalizar.blogspot.com/"><b>I would love to hear that story."</b></a></blockquote>
A funny thing happens when you step through a door you once shut with determination, intending to leave it shut for all time. Perhaps it's funny if you are blessed with the genes of drama which the Gods and Goddesses chuckle at and say things my mother once told me, "Wait until you have children of your own. You know what I mean." The thing about the way the Ancestors work is they don't tell me off so much as put me into the in between places where I experience all options at the same time. Ever live from a crack in a bowl? Reopening Vardo For Two is much like that. The quote that begins this post comes from a bit of writing done in my on-line, on-going writers' group. We call the group Prime the Pump. I created 'the pump' one February when I wanted somewhere to go with the fullness (and the limitations) of living from Vardo For Two. I could go no where. One definition of that condition might be 'isolation' but I had so much energy that needed out! What can a gal do? One option: create magic, common magic.<br />
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The bit above is a <a href="http://thesafetypincafe.blogspot.com/2012/12/it-begins.html"><b>continuation of the medicine and mythic journey</b></a> of Pale Wawae border witch. In many ways she is my mythic self both more vulnerable and more courageous than I am to the whirl that sees me. But the grand reality of it is, we -- she and I,<a href="http://thesafetypincafe.blogspot.com/2013/09/fiction-and-poetry-are-doses-medicine.html"><b> make for a better whirl </b></a>because the story is put down. I cannot be sure where my stories lead, just as Pete and I could not be sure what would happen once we imagined a curved roof and moveable home on wheels. Seated as I am now at the keyboard in a Quonset Hut that was no where in my imagination when we were building Vardo For Two, I can tell you with some certainty: the magic lies <a href="http://www.mokihanacalizar.blogspot.com/"><i>in</i> the crack. </a><br />
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And, if you need an astrological slant on things. <a href="http://www.elsaelsa.com/astrology/2013/11/26/astrology-today-wednesday-november-27-2013-service/"><b>Go here</b></a>. <br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RQMpTKdUBTc/UpYVGwrOS_I/AAAAAAAAC0Q/ABezkfHXuSU/s1600/gold-mended-bowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RQMpTKdUBTc/UpYVGwrOS_I/AAAAAAAAC0Q/ABezkfHXuSU/s320/gold-mended-bowl.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://songsforthepureofheart.com/2012/08/30/myom-8-gold-cracks/">Link </a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-75759638412288005592013-11-25T00:38:00.002-08:002013-11-25T17:38:08.265-08:00Re-opening Vardo For Two<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Comings and goings</b><br />
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Many things have happened since I began blogging in 2008: blogs and bloggers have come and gone, I have a lot more gray hair today, and my love affair with blogging has grown to epic proportions. I've learned a lot about blogging and opened and shut dozens of them (really!) Vardo For Two was the first blog I started. It started as a way to chronicle the process of building a two wheeled moveable Gypsy-style home that was 'safe enough for us.' We needed to invest in the belief that we could rebuild our lives after I became increasingly ill from multiple chemical sensitivities and could no longer live, or be, in most enclosed spaces (houses were a no-go!) We, my husband Pete and I were part of the early stages of the <i>Tiny Home</i> enthusiasm thanks in part to Jay Shafer of <a href="http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/">Tumbleweed Tiny Homes</a> fame. We drove to California in the fall of 2007, met and participated in one of Shafer's first workshops and as they say in the Twelve Step Rooms "took what we liked and left the rest." Vardo For Two did become the record-keeping journal of the process and the experiences of <a href="http://www.samandsally-vardofortwo.blogspot.com/2008/10/tale-of-two-dears-whole-short-story.html"><b>two old dears</b></a> investing in a new beginning.<br />
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I closed this blog in 2011 when I felt the details of our lives and the direction of my healing was leading to new ground. I was healing. I was getting better, and at the time I believed it best to close the blog<b>;</b> leave diasposa and struggle behind. If I didn't call myself "ill" and retell the story of being so my brain would be retrained and recovering my health would come. I believed that. I don't believe it all the time today, and so I'm retracing old ground. The details and review of VardoForTwo, so much effort pictured in these blog pages, led me to believe others could be helped. We offered lots of help, but found that few people would pay for our help even when we asked. Resentment built in. There's really not enough time to live with resentment. <br />
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<b>Route 66</b><br />
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I turned 66 a couple weeks ago, and have begun what I'm calling <i>My personal Route 66.</i> The signposts and destinations for this journey aren't on a map, and it seems I need to reopen certain doors in order to move more surely forward. The quirky thing about this door opening thing is in the description to Vardo For Two <i>"Stories Five Years Later ... life on the borders where myth-making and magic are the remedy" </i>What does that mean? It means that sometimes the life you rebuild is one that becomes infused with the magic of myth that space and place that is no longer logical and uni-brain rational. The life rebuilt for me is one that does not re-enter the world at all the same way before I was homeless. It is a life that grows from the medicine of stories that are mythic and metaphors, whimsical and deeply connected with ancient Earth-based practices. Vardo For Two both the blog and the two wheeled moveable Gypsy-style safe place is a border crossing world from which I notice Nature at her unadulterated and live from that place.<br />
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<b>Five years later ... myth and magic the remedies</b><br />
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<i>"Stories Five Years Later ..."</i> reopens the blog Vardo For Two so the process of rebuilding two lives might serve as a place for others to do a similar thing. It's very possible many many people will be doing that in this century. The stories that came before 2013 are true for us. The process and materials we used then are still working for us five years later. What has changed are the links to sites and resources on this blog, I'll be cleaning them up as best I can in the days to come.<br />
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The stories that I write and link to <b>from this point forward</b> are equally true. They are the mythic memoirs of an old woman who has found her ancestry of birds and storyteller. Both genealogies allow me to live on the borders where truth and lies become myth. Anyone who has rebuilt her life will tell you the process is out of this world. With the reopening of Vardo For Two I feel it's important to share the medicine stories living forward with magic. Maybe the journey and purpose all along was: forget what no longer works and find the magic that does. <br />
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<a href="http://intothehermitage.blogspot.com/">Rima Staines</a>, a sister traveller, storyteller and artist says if you don't look for magic you will never find it. I believe her.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-27338527552350380042011-03-01T15:35:00.000-08:002011-03-01T15:35:13.262-08:00Kawika Brown plays music at Bicyclette Cafe, Paris, March 11, 2011<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-8pHOaybJI9k/TW1-XjG0GPI/AAAAAAAABN4/Mb1_IE-SI7k/s1600/cb+in+paris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" l6="true" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-8pHOaybJI9k/TW1-XjG0GPI/AAAAAAAABN4/Mb1_IE-SI7k/s320/cb+in+paris.jpg" width="246" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Our son is playing music at the <a href="http://www.cityvox.fr/restaurants_paris/la-bicyclette-cafe_81290/PhotosLieu">Bicyclette Cafe</a> in Paris</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">March 11th, 2011</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">March 11th is his Tutu Lady's (grandmothers) birthday. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">She would have been 93 on 3/11/11.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">What a great <em>kani ka pila</em> to be at!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">If you're in Paris on Friday the 11th of March, go see Kawika. We'd love to be there with him.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Hauoli La Hanau, Ma.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-65905648058938034112011-02-27T11:38:00.000-08:002011-02-27T11:40:50.761-08:00MCS Uncovered ... lest I forget what "Toxic Drift Disease" is<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C57ITCyml_M/TWqi_M94cZI/AAAAAAAABN0/7PiPvvME9ag/s1600/mcs+uncovered.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" l6="true" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C57ITCyml_M/TWqi_M94cZI/AAAAAAAABN0/7PiPvvME9ag/s640/mcs+uncovered.bmp" width="457" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Eva Cabella, Spanish blogger and "Canary" sister living with MCS, the illness/disease I have begun calling "Toxic Drift Disease" has recently completed a new MCS Awareness project. It's this poster she calls "MCS UNCOVERED." Eva authors her blog <strong><a href="http://nofun-eva.blogspot.com/">NO FUN</a></strong>. Eva's poster <a href="http://www.thecanaryreport.org/2011/02/24/chemical-sensitivity-uncovered/">showed up on Susie Collins'</a> The Canary Report, I'm sharing it here.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The many masked faces of men and women across the Earth are a reality we know; masked is sometimes the <strong>only </strong>way to be out in the public-world. Living here in the forest of South Whidbey Island, USA clean air, compassionate neighbors and tiny safe havens of space make it possible for me to believe I can thrive. In spite of the odds, I write from a chilly Quonset Hut with hot water, shelter, and loving support. Sometimes, I get impatient with the smallness of my life, wishing for access to the rest of the world.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then, I see Eva's poster and I am reminded, there is still so much more work to do before I can easily step from my tiny world in the forest into the public. Solidarity! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-3809914316939496962011-02-25T08:36:00.000-08:002011-02-25T08:36:18.379-08:00Snow?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aQavRJ3OQA4/TWfZfYlqLrI/AAAAAAAABNw/6M1SDGlZJeg/s1600/snow.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" l6="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aQavRJ3OQA4/TWfZfYlqLrI/AAAAAAAABNw/6M1SDGlZJeg/s1600/snow.bmp" /></a></div>Is snow a foreign language to you? Leap over to <a href="http://www.itsallcompost.blogspot.com/">The Heap</a> and write about it. Prime the Pump an on-line Writer's Group is meeting, and growing over at ItsAllCompost.<br />
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<em>Mokihana</em><br />
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Imagine credit: <a href="http://www.havecoffeewiththat.wordpress.com/">http://www.havecoffeewiththat.wordpress.com/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-3747912436740359762011-02-21T10:14:00.000-08:002011-02-21T10:16:18.388-08:00Uranus moves into Aries, March 10th ... life will rocketWhere will Uranus be? <br />
What is Uranus?<br />
Why attend to Uranus?<br />
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Uranus <strong>planet of sudden change</strong> will be in the sign of <strong>Aries</strong> (the 1st sign of the zodiac; characterized as aggression, self-directed) beginning March 10, 2011. I checked in with <a href="http://www.elsaelsa.com/astrology/2011/02/21/uranus-ingress-into-aries-march-10-2011/">Elsa P.</a> this morning. It's a common practice on my part to get a feel for the planets and stars. Pete and I have been talking a lot about our commitment to remaining here in the forest, here in this community where for the first time in many years a sense of safety feels <em>possible</em>.<br />
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Environmental refugee was not a description I'd have chosen for myself, consciously. Life has led to years of discovering that both, the choices others make: for example, whether your neighbor decides to spray Round-up instead of pulling weeds; whether the state you live in decides to spray Round-up instead of maintaining public roads and parks using safer methods; whether scented laundry products are a <em>need</em>; and, the .choices I make: such as, forgetting to remove a drying shirt left on the heater; or not having a shower to wash the scents of the world-at-large from our hair, head, skin do make me physically sick.<br />
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The pages of VardoForTwo are filled with the process and the journey of two environmental refugees. Pete and I have charts (astrology) that point to our sensitivity to the environment. We have that predisposition as a couple. It helps me to recognize that, and yet it does not discount the <strong><a href="http://www.ewg.org/chemindex">reality of the chemical and debilitating effects of the industries </a></strong>that create Round-up, Bounce, Lysol Hand-sanitizers et.al. We live a life from two very small spaces built portable, because we know the possibility of needing to move quickly exists. Our home is on wheels and this Quonset can be disassembled and moved.<br />
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Parked here in the forest we have planted ourselves with two women, nine ducks, three hens, two dogs and three cats. There is growing understanding and respect for the needs each of us has. Why do I look to astrology and ask where Uranus is? I do it because life is changeable, and I need to attune to not just the position of heavenly bodies. I need to know that my life, Pete and my direction is pointed in a direction that we can maintain or adjust with skill and wisdom.<br />
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Our years of being refugees has weathered us, wiped us out and made us stronger and more accepting of who we are. The position and influences of planets, gravity, the sun, the moon these factor into the collective environment ... and as I've already said Pete and I are predisposed to be sensitives. We will feel intensely. That's why it matters that I check in, and tune-up our direction, our commitment and our readiness for life rocketing. I come to this blog to put things down before I forget. Like a huge post-it note that is not easily lost I blog to keep on track.<br />
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I did some research and gleaning for this post, collecting information that might help you prepare for the Aries take-off come early March. I am already feeling the excelleration, so others are too I'm sure. Uranus transits my 3rd house, so it serves me well to be open and willing to learn new things, upgrade my knowledge from others and technology (group info and more about the internet). Uranus transits Pete's 7th house of interaction and relationships. He's a man out in the community, people are attracted to him, he gets to grow, more.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uKT2lbKbfLk/TWKi58JnGyI/AAAAAAAABNk/4MhydNSANIw/s1600/house_01.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" j6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uKT2lbKbfLk/TWKi58JnGyI/AAAAAAAABNk/4MhydNSANIw/s1600/house_01.gif" /></a></div>Wherever Uranus will be come March 10th, that is ... what House Uranus will be in will give you clues about being ready and prepared for the ride. If you don't know where Uranus will be transiting, <a href="http://www.astro.com/cgi/genchart.cgi">click here</a> for a free astro.com chart.<br />
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I gleaned the articles written by <a href="http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_aboutdana_e.htm"><strong>Dana Gerhardt </strong></a>once again, to give you House by House clues to use during this Uranus in Aries transit. <br />
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To read the complete set of articles by Dana Gerhardt <a href="http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_dgfirsthouse_e.htm">click here</a>. <br />
<ol><li>The work of the 1st house is to keep birthing yourself, which means to keep separating, to keep honoring what’s different about you. </li>
<li>The 2nd rules both what money can buy (possessions and material resources) and what it can't buy (talents, self-esteem, and values). </li>
<li>The 3rd house brings opportunities to keep updating ourselves.</li>
<li>The 4th is where we go when we collapse. It rules home and family, ancestors and homeland. It provides a literal retreat.</li>
<li>One of the greatest gifts of the fifth house is its invitation to moments of unself-consciousness. This is the divine self at play, moving with spontaneity and joy.</li>
<li>In the 6th we notice life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. We can drown in our failure. Or we can do something about it. We can change our approach, acquire new techniques. We can either suffer or grow. </li>
<li>The 7th house is where we yearn for, and receive, "the other." We strive to harmonize here, one-on-one, with not just one but a parade of significant others—teachers and counselors, business colleagues and lovers. They provoke us to grow.</li>
<li>Survive an 8th house transit and you’ll be reborn. Valuable lessons will be learned. Eventually you’ll regard the 8th as a kind of spiritual master who only shatters you for your higher good. In this house greater forces run the show.</li>
<li>The 9th encourages our quest for meaning in life. But generally we don’t go there until life falls apart. The 9th rules the literature of spirit, the metaphors, symbols and myths that bind a culture, its moral codes, its shared ideals and visions. </li>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u4D2AK4LoXc/TWKjNHHYH4I/AAAAAAAABNo/AmGtnygR9GE/s1600/mushroom+cottage.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" j6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u4D2AK4LoXc/TWKjNHHYH4I/AAAAAAAABNo/AmGtnygR9GE/s1600/mushroom+cottage.gif" /></a></div><li>What you make of yourself is a 10th house matter. The 10th describes your career, your public reputation, your worldly status. </li>
<li>The 11th house brings us allies, the comforts of shared experience, the strength of a collective stand. It also turns a critical eye on our behavior, makes us vulnerable to group opinion, and defines us as "out" or "in."</li>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JMWYOLyeKUU/TWKjZSqwNDI/AAAAAAAABNs/ZuW9mtEzqsQ/s1600/house_07.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" j6="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JMWYOLyeKUU/TWKjZSqwNDI/AAAAAAAABNs/ZuW9mtEzqsQ/s1600/house_07.gif" /></a></div><li>Pay attention to what irritates or frightens you “out there,” because it’s quite likely this enemy lurks in the shadows of your own nature, described by your 12th house planets or signs</li>
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There are other wonderful astrology sites to help with this, too. Here are a few of them:<br />
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<a href="http://www.astrologydirectory.net/">http://www.astrologydirectory.net/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.skwriter.wordpress.com/">http://www.skwriter.wordpress.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://auntiemoon.wordpress.com/">http://auntiemoon.wordpress.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.elsaelsa.com/">http://www.elsaelsa.com/</a><br />
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<strong>Buckled up, buddied-up, ready?</strong><br />
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"Rocket Man by Elton John" listen here: <a href="http://s0.ilike.com/play#Elton+John:Rocket+Man:33558:s155085.13663.10946193.1.1.77%2Cstd_5b135a51613b8eb6cc2fdc1f0fd173f6">http://s0.ilike.com/play#Elton+John:Rocket+Man:33558:s155085.13663.10946193.1.1.77%2Cstd_5b135a51613b8eb6cc2fdc1f0fd173f6</a><br />
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Image credits: <a href="http://www.designedtoat.com/">http://www.designedtoat.com/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-84069963276013359962011-02-20T07:03:00.000-08:002011-02-20T15:07:13.308-08:00Owl hoots<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uItPXuBfEyg/TWEqxRq2Q1I/AAAAAAAABNc/JIKQfrR9Bqg/s1600/pueo.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uItPXuBfEyg/TWEqxRq2Q1I/AAAAAAAABNc/JIKQfrR9Bqg/s200/pueo.bmp" width="146" /></a></div>"In this home of the imagination, there is room for both the Sun and Moon. This 4th house nurtures us like a lunar mother, it sustains us like a father Sun. It invites us to sing and dance to its shifting rhythms. It holds that castle where we are king."<br />
-<strong>The Fourth House</strong>, <a href="http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_dgfourthhouse_e.htm">Dana Gerhardt</a><br />
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It's cold in the Quonset. Not yet dawn, the stars and the moon create just enough light to make the sound of owl calls an eery echo. From the warmth of the futon, <em><a href="http://www.northernspottedowl.org/?gclid=CNnTj7v8lqcCFQgHbAodtXSQcQ">pueo</a></em> called. JOTS is still comfortable curled under the warm lamp. The slant board is no more. We moved it out to make a bit more room in our tiny arched cooking-writing-hanging out hut. The G.Jots (Girl form of Johnnie-On-The-Spot) is a Traveller's familiar. A feline that has moved a thousand miles, a dozen places. Still, she is annoyed, and was just that, when she saw us shuffling things in the Quonset. Three days later she is adjusted and content to sleep on the orange pillow now atop one of the two bright yellow metal folding chairs. A picture would be such a beautiful thing, but we are not yet camera-ready. Our abilities to load photos still stymies us. </blockquote></blockquote><br />
A pot of water is working itself into a boil, a supplemental heat source. A metal building with minimal insulation is still a draft tunnel. The Radiant Electric Heater is pumping warmth to the right side of my leg, but my knees are cold. From head to toe I am layered in the clothes that can keep me warm. When I talk with my son I hear the activities of a busy young man preparing for a journey of crossing oceans and cultures. I hear the joy of being with masters of Hawaiian music and Hawaiian healing. He describes the latest change to the retaining wall overlooking our favorite Makapu'u view. I yearn for the warmth of Hawaiian sunshine and the company of music, lilting voices, warm ocean swims.<br />
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The boil is on. Steam starts to rise. <em>Pueo</em> has moved on. Yet my knees keep me present. The owl hoots in trees rooted on a big rock island in a Pacific Northwest waterway. I am here, Hawaii is there, and we are on the same planet the pueo, the Quonset, and my Hawaiian memories. <br />
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My venture over to <strong><a href="http://www.itsallcompost.blogspot.com/">Its All Compost</a></strong> is also rooting itself with focus and effort, my writing blog begins to take shape. There are writing and creative projects to warm my need to express life as I find it: two short stories are growing for submission into contests due in mid-March. A dream of producing an audio-recording of my book Wood Crafting is making its way into flesh. There is so much to learn, and with resourceful and adaptive methods Multiple Chemical Sensitivities does not wall off my dreams, but does instead structure my approach with real-life.My first gathering of <strong><a href="http://itsallcompost.blogspot.com/2011/02/priming-pump-friday-on-line-writing.html">PRIME THE PUMP</a></strong> an on-line writers group met on Friday, February 18th. We are now 6 writers just begun to get to know one another, sharing the writing stimulated by a single tickle line. The line this week was: "She'd never thought of herself that way before, but ..." Or, the alternate tickle line was "I'd never thought of myself that way before, but ..." The writing was surprising, delightful, powerful, funny. Click on PRIME THE PUMP <em>(above)</em> to read the stories. Join in if you've an itch to write in community.<br />
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I miss being here at VardoForTwo, so I've stepped back here because ... I can. It's fun to have options, and with the tinyness of my world where ventures out of the forest are few, it's nice to know I can always come back to <em>home </em>by walking the dozen steps here, and clicking <a href="http://www.vardofortwo.blogspot.com/">http://www.vardofortwo.blogspot.com/</a>.<br />
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To listen to the Spotted Owl <a href="http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/view_default.asp?sortBy=has+audio&viewType=list&curFamilyID=241">click here</a>: <br />
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<em>Aloha,</em><br />
<em>Mokihana</em><br />
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<strong>Where do you call home?</strong><br />
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Imagine credit: <a href="http://www.susty.com/">http://www.susty.com/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4131721883161601450.post-45909952365183193632011-02-16T16:44:00.000-08:002011-02-19T17:04:42.526-08:00Willing to be empty While waiting to fill up ... the astrology of itIt's one of those nearly perfect days in the Pacific Northwest America. The air is clean, the wind present, sky blue and though it's not warm it's pleasant. Pete and JOTS and I are making changes here in the forest. The blogs are changing and it's an organic progress. For me, I am challenged to let there be empty space. Pete is busy with lots of other things. He is responsible. He works out-side (tending to the poultry residents, washing his clothes in the Gals' house, maintaining everyday life which is substantial); he volunteers at the local Food Bank garden, and he has a 'job.' His blog 'schedule' is his and we have one laptop between us, so sharing is a big part of life in a vardo and a Quonset. Waiting is a big part of sharing. Seems obvious but there have been times, too many, when I have either lost track of why I was waiting (some say that's the place where I had slid into denial) or forgot that I was waiting it had been so long. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nov-AMXJAW0/TVxt0tEUORI/AAAAAAAABNY/s_UGr3jjwf8/s1600/waiting.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" j6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nov-AMXJAW0/TVxt0tEUORI/AAAAAAAABNY/s_UGr3jjwf8/s1600/waiting.gif" /></a></div><a name='more'></a><br />
I have lots of Capricorn, I'm used to hard climbs and long-waiting. But it's my Leo placement of Saturn and Mars that just stirs things up for me and I get unruly. Our <a href="http://vardofortwo.blogspot.com/2011/01/part-two-of-relationships-potential-of.html"><strong>composite chart</strong></a><strong> </strong>serves us well I think, giving me an objective three party (the chart) when set-backs, challenges and the consequences of our choices bamboozle our best efforts. Yesterday was a perfect example. I wash my clothes by hand and do a few things at a time so what I do wash can dry in the small spaces undercover. Yesterday I washed my favorite green turtle neck, and three other pieces of already well-worn clothing. It takes most of a day to dry these things, so I draped my turtle neck over the heater to dry it ... ordinarily I'd be in the vardo while I dried something this way. I was't. <br />
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Long story shorter ... the shirt was left too long untended and the heated fabric filled the vardo with smell. Toxic smell. Any one with MCS knows the fear of exposure to your primary place of safety. It's a big bad wolf kind of fear. We were lucky. The Air Gods were favorable, and we have been able to remove all the curtains, wash them, and they are drying over the windows now. No neighbors burned fires. We slept with all four windows wide open all night and today we are both recovering from the toxic hang-over of an exposure. The process is long-standing takes lots of steps. <br />
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We lose it, and get impatient with ourselves and one another. From the composite I find this to point at as one reason we make it through these episodes over and over. Together, we have <strong>Jupiter Trine Saturn</strong><br />
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<blockquote>This is a stabilizing configuration that lends positive support to your relationship. You will instinctively know how to effectively plan your future together for long-term success. This is an indicator of longevity for the two of you as a couple. One of your most fortunate attributes is that you will be able to wade through the bad times and have faith that everything will be all right. <br />
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An excellent place to put this patience and stability would be into business, where you can keep any extravagance in check and lend support to the other in difficult times. This aspect combines the generosity, faith and luck of Jupiter with the discipline, practicality and steadfastness of Saturn in a balanced way that will strengthen your relationship.</blockquote>It's that combination of 'generosity, faith and luck of Jupiter with the discipline, practicality and steadfastness of Saturn in a balanced way that will strengthen your relationship.' Saturn is in retrograde through June, and we need to take time to reassess our goals and commitments. Our relationship is based on being in the business of supporting each other on our individual soul's journey. Linked with this illness, the sensitivity to chemicals and toxics (attitudes included) I am fired up with the energy of a partner who really supports my creativity. MCS can and does regularly and easily drain the vitality of the physical self. When both of us are exposed and vulnerable it's tough to stay supportive. But, we do.<br />
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We have waited a long time to have a place to settle and spread our quirky partnership into a space. The astrology of it permeates. Our character is set in many ways, we have weathered many spirals. There are more. I am excited and sometimes overwhelmed by my attempts to shine and start new projects like my blog It's All Compost. Being willing to be empty is not easy, but I do it. Pete supports my creativity and I his. We are living a DIY life and thanks to the investment into belief and faith in navigational tools we see opportunities even through the brain-fog of yet one more experience with toxic drift.<br />
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<strong>How are you at being willing to be empty? Does astrology help in your life?</strong><br />
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Imagine credit: <a href="http://www.designedtoat.com/">http://www.designedtoat.com/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2