New Moon, New Year

It's my birthday. I've had a cup of birthday brew with a spoonful of "Naked Coconut" Coconut Bliss to begin the day, a beautiful hot shower, a fresh lemon shampoo and toast with sunflower butter. The tropical storm that has drenched my isles of Birth (the Hawaiian Isles) with up to 17 inches of rain on the island of Kauai, is coming this way. Pete has lashed down the porch of the vardo with heavy strapping and drove stakes in the ground to secure our wee home as best he can. A few prayers to the gods will top off our preparation and then we're off on a car ride to pick up a re-fill of glutathione to support my dear lungs and immune system.

When I stepped from the little bathroom with my hair wrapped in my towel turban I found a plain brown envelope tucked beside my coffee cup. Inside a photo of my favorite pirate of the screens stood boldly on a birthday card for me. The card read:

PIRATES tell an ancient Legend of such immeasurable age, that it makes the seas themselves seem Y O u N g. In the story, YOUR NAME comes up quite a bit. Happy BirTHdaY.

iT was my vardo partner Pete, of course.

My keyboard partner has joined me to complete the birthday post. She's purring in for the perfect position (a new one facing me and looking me up and down).

My birthday comes with a new moon this year and a new moon is always filled the potency of possibilities. With a kitty in my lap, coconut bliss in my belly, my home battened down against the storm and a partner who loves me I would say this birthday is off to a very, very good start.

Manoa melemele

plate lunch

'ohana and kanikapila

Here's what I'm missing back on the island ... birthday plate lunch
and kanikapila in Manoa. Ahhh

Hoot, Hoot hurray this day's for you "Josh Tree"

Joshua Tree loved the land and trees that filled the deeply angled slopes surrounding the pond of Ever. Familiar to him since he was a boy, Josh knew everything about his trees. He worked in town and had little time on the trails for clearing downed limbs and rotted trees but his attentive eyes were always keen to the conditions on the glen. The sound of voices and laughter filled The Family’s mansion. Calliope and T.F. had promised to meet in the river bed mid-way between the lake and the pond of Ever. The river bed, now dry of run-off carved a shallow trail just below Josh and Anna’s porch. “Do you think he’s ever seen us?” Calliope asked as he slithered over the lichen-covered rock bed. “He’s a fully grown man with a love of the Tall Ones and yet he has reserved a connection between us that says something about his Grace. Is it easier you think, for some mortals to remain above water even when the pond of Ever draws everything and any being to the deepest parts?” The orange one was quite a philosopher with interests that always made Traveling Frog chuckle with delight. “Calliope, you of all beings ought to appreciate the changeable nature of a being. Orange in one season and slim green and tailed the next. It seems to me not all mortals care to invite, or perhaps lose memory of the grace to cant the dreams, we remain invisible to them.” “Doesn’t make Joshua any less a good man just because he can not see us,” Calliope was very fond of the keeper of these stretches of stony land. “No, he doesn’t need to see us to believe these are a special Wood and an even more special pond. There’s a season of unveilings beginning now that the Bird and her mate have pulled their wagon to The Ledge. What Joshua Tree does or does not see may be different before the cycle finishes.” Calliope quieted and followed T.F. to the leveled patch of stones not far from the lake’s shore.

- a snippet from Wood Crafting inspired by the real Josh Tree
who shares the land, The Pond, The Ledge and The Trees with
Pete and me

The adventure of life from VardoForTwo evolves with the experiences of building an
Intentional Community. Life on the planet offers us mortals opportunities to Reassemble the ways in which we live with ALL THAT IS. Pete, Jots and I are learning what it takes to share time, place and responsibility. At 60 + four friends and their familiars with natures and personalities as unique as our astrological signs (one Gemini, one Taurus, one Cancer, one Scorpio and two four-legged spirits of unknown astrological beginnings) are intentionally sharing a life.

We are nearly seven weeks into the process and we are learning: respect, cooperation, humility, compromise, acceptance and I practice the 12 steps that I learned while in the rooms of Al-Anon.

Our friends and the land upon while we live inspire me to listen and notice even more attentively. The snippet from my book in the making was inspired by the real Josh Tree. The picture in this post is his original cabin ... built decades past, Pete and I ventured the over-grown trails and brought back a parcel of enthusiasm and excitement. The Fairies and Magicians of the Woods and Pond are alive and well and living in the glen below The Ledge. Lucky us,
Mahalo, Mahalo!

Happy Birthday M & M ... the real Josh Tree.
and thank you Chuck for everything.

Mokihana, Pete and Jots