MCS Uncovered ... lest I forget what "Toxic Drift Disease" is

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 NO FUN.  Eva's poster showed up on Susie Collins' The Canary Report, I'm sharing it here.

The many masked faces of men and women across the Earth are a reality we know; masked is sometimes the only 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.

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! 

Team Up and Inventory your Tools

Moon Time and Prayers

The old moon is in its final stages.  Yesterday and last night was 'Ole Pau.  I remembered to say my prayers of thanks to Akua Kanaloa and Kaloa, mindful of the gods as I went about my repairs (washing pillow cases and our futon cover by hand in a dishpan, and drying them over the heater; recovering from an exposure ). 

"Mahalo Ke Akua, I repeated over and over."  When the sun came up the light from Ka La shone bright through the tall standing trees.  I chanted "Ea La e, ea La e," over and over again.  If during the course of the moon I forget the deeply restorative nature of my ancestral roots, it is during the 'Ole Cycle when I am consciously slowed that I partner with intuition and attend to repairing and patching, reevaluating and giving thanks.

The  exposure during the 'Ole cycle was a self-imposed one.  We have had the distraction of a tiny television and a DVD player upon which we could watch favorite movies, over and over again!  The DVD player began sticking weeks ago.  Pete figured out how to make it work.  But, the 'fix' involved opening up the player and priming the disc like priming a pump or turning the handle on a Model T auto.  The innards of the player got warmer and warmer and finally the smell was toxifying, and my lungs and brain were frazzled.  Re-visiting your decisions and choices ... that's what 'Ole cycles are about for us.  Where is the TV and DVD?  Banished for the while under the tarp house. 

I am recovered with the help of my NAET practices of moving qui down my spine and out the bottoms of my feet; nebulizing glutithione, and using glutithione in a nasal spray.  In addition, we unplug the vardo of electricity at different times and slept for six hours last night without EMFs and it was a very different kind of sleep.

Harvest ... those things that abide ... one year's progress PART ONE

I've enjoyed reading the success stories of folk in the MCS community.  With access to the internet again, the ability to connect and share in healing and recovery journeys is the best sort of holiday present.  2010 has been a year of creative expression and change for me and Pete.  Ironically, the internet was not available to us most of this year, so the times when we did have it had to be focused and at the same time accepted as short windows of opportunity .  Blogging and surfing the web were replaced with the hands-on feet on the ground experiences of settling, setting root in a new place.  In May we boarded a ferry with our VardoForTwo and landed on Whidbey Island.  With rain drops fat and sloppy falling on the metal roof of our quonset shelter, and the radiant electric heat baking my right thigh there is time and circumstance for catching up on the wonderful harvest of progress.

First, let me celebrate the successes of sister Canaries who have made wonderful progress in the journey of healing from MCS.

Libby  blogs at MovingBeyondMCS

Libby began blogging about the small and giant steps of improvement and recovery from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.  When her blog was infant she made it clear that her purpose was to chronicle the improvements in her life; the things that work for her; and the stories of others who are finding sources and experiences of recovery.

In 2010, I read how Libby has taken herself on a long and successful road trip to New York.  Libby lives in Canada, and her venture as well as the other posts of change and improvement are harvests of success.

Congratulations and Hurrah for you Libby!

LadyItchalot

Community forums and blogs introduce me to others with MCS.  Though I have had little contact or communication with LadyItchalot, I have read her experiences over the past two years on The Canary Report and Planet Thrive.  The link will connect you with LadyItchalot's current success and recovery in her own words.  I read the two part article on The Canary Report yesterday, and am truly filled with joy and hope after reading it.

This quote from LadyItcalot's story (Part 2) was especially resonant for me:

..."Let me please stress that I definitely still believe that we were chemically injured. What I now believe is that for most of us, there was another stressor at the time of injury. A stressor can be any of many different sources (physical, emotional, medical). MCS researcher Martin Pall addresses this in his NO/ONOO- theory with the eNOS, iNOS and nNOS. Brain retraining expert Ashok Gupta addresses that with amygdala co-wiring, as does Annie Hopper with her neural retraining"

This story of recovery and healing opens to the very broad band of opportunity and possibilities for reassembling life.  "There was another stressor at the time of injury" is a key factor for me.  Now that we are on Whidbey Island and have planted the seeds of a new life into this island community, those other stressors have a chance to surface and heal.  My blogging is one form of re-wiring and using the gifts of growth and creativity to heal.  Patience is necessary in large stores and others recovery stories fan the flames.  How grateful I am to have access to your story LadyItchalot in time to count it as a fine holiday present.  Thank you.

VFT
A year ago last summer(2009) Julie Genser founder of Planet Thrive did an extensive interview with Pete and me.  A Gypsy Life: Notes from the Diaspora has been a gateway ... a sign-post from which I have reviewed our journey.  The rune "Gateway" serves as reminder to review and consider what life has been like in all its phases and myriad forms before stepping through the gate to things yet to be. 

We have planted the seed of a new life, or 'new normal' and need to recount and value the progress we have made.  Here are a few of my favorite sprouting successes.  From Julie's interview with Pete and me I find these successes,and count them as presents.

A quonset kitchen

A year ago summer we were camped on The Ledge in the Woods, and cooked under our tarp-roofed outdoor kitchen.  Our outdoor kitchens have served us well during the summers.  When the temperature and weather changes to winter, other arrangements need to be concocted. 

Here, now though you have no pictures to confirm it, we have the quonset kitchen to enjoy degrees of comfort, warmth and respite like we have not had in a long stretch of time. 

We count this as a present, and give thanks to the guidance and generosity of a very creative Creator.

Intentional Community

This is part of the answer I gave Julie Genser when she asked us to describe our vision of an "Intentional Community" we would like to created.

"I think our original vision for intentional community was more idealistic. With each day and night of life from the Vardo that vision tempers. I see how slowly change comes and try to keep it simple. An intentional community might include the following basics:


1) clean air

TODAY
Here in South Whidbey the air is clean and fresh on most days and nights.  Winter wood burning is an issue, and we need to close up the vardo and sometimes I use oxygen to ride out the exposure to the smoke.  The present comes from having both the vardo which seals well against things like smoke, and having the resources to pay for tanks of oxygen when I need it.

2) clean water

TODAY
We share the well water with our friends  and landladies.  We choose not to use the water for drinking or bathing because the minerals and sediment from all manner of stuff is not the best for us.  What we have done for many years is to carry a portable RO (reverse osmosis) water purification system to filter the well water.  With the quonset kitchen in place, the filter works wonders from the faucet Pete has in the sink.  Slowly yet steadily we filter a half gallon of water at a time. 


HOT CLEAN WATER is the other blessing that comes from like in an evolving process.  Thanks to our friend Joan, who suggested the idea of using a big old fashioned coffee pot as a mini hot water tank, we have a small stainless steel percalator that is our hot water tank.  8 cups of filtered hot water is available any time for washing/bathing/drinking.  It's sheer luxury 8 cups at a time!

3) safe sleeping spaces

TODAY
The Vardo for Two is that for us and we love it, love it love it!

4) quiet times often

TODAY
Dreams do come true when you tether them to the footwork of risk taking and hard work.  Our place here in the forest is quiet often.  The loudest sound I hear now is the air filter and the fat drops of rain on the quonset roof.


We have separate yet close enough to our near neighbors living.  We have established respectful and consistent boundaries between us.  We have learned from the other shared living experiences and grow in our ability to live without unnecessary walls.  Since we live from small space, the outdoors is our living room and the walk between our neighbors home and the vardo or quonset give us plenty of quiet, often.

5) organic local food/growers and garden space to tend and harvest

TODAY
South Whidbey and Whidbey Island as a whole is a mecca of organic, local growers.  We have made connections with them through the Farmer's Markets and through community groups like Transition Whidbey.  Here on the land where we live, nine ducks, three chickens and an orchard of fruit trees give us what we have dreamed could happen. 


There is plenty of maintenance to keeping the critters happy and the trees healthy.  Next year there will be time to do a little more than we have done this year. 

6) respectful human relationships

TODAY
With each camping place we have taken Vardo For Two we learn what it means to be a human in respectful relationships.  That is a process that doesn't happen quickly, and with the lessons that challenge us because MCS makes us 'different' the process is one of learning and unlearning as much as healing from environmental illness.


Growing respectful of ourselves and others means I practice the things that have worked for me as an abiding process.  I practice the principles and practices of The Twelve Steps.  I remember that I am a Makua O'o and I use the memory of my Hawaiian culture as a backbone to connect with a Higher Power. 

Pete and I learn how to sustain and nurture a partnership of equals and give each other the room to be given the tiny spaces from which we grow our home.  Having the quonset extends this option to have separate, though small space.

I'll continue tomorrow with Part Two of Harvest and make notes on the remaining parts of the Intentional Community we envisioned.

7) openness to sharing resources

8) laughter whenever possible, if not more

9) fragrance- and chemical-free

10) a spiritual connection with Earth and Ke Akua (Source, Higher Power) that is the foundation"

PROSE from Founder of The Canary Report ... Susie Collins writes about her passion

Notes from Mokihana

The Canary Report is a very successful and collaborative example of resourcefullness and service with its focus on MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES.  "The Canary" is the creation of founder Susie Collins, who lives and blogs from the island of Hawai'i.  I found Susie and The Canary in the early days of living back on the North American continent when the symptoms and despair of MCS had us in a swhirl.  The blog was smaller then, yet there was support and wide-open arms with the flavor of Hawaii that is always a core of nurturing for me.  Here is a piece of prose that I asked Susie to contribute.  It's a view of this wahine that fills out the hard-working public relations that she does with the online community that swells with spirit.  Susie likes to say, "Together, We are stronger"  in Hawaiian that would be Onipa'a Kakou.  Mahalo Susie for your expression ... your mana'o.


Aloha Mokihana!


Thanks for inviting me to join your Canary Caravan Carnival! This has been an amazing MCS Awareness Month, full of fun and creative activities, and I think this 1st Annual Canary Caravan Carnival is the most fun idea ever!


You’ve asked me to write about the passion that fuels my work at The Canary Report, and about my passion for collaborating with other bloggers to create resources for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. I’m happy to share some thoughts on that.

Throughout my life, I’ve had a passion for activism and community work. In high school, I went door to door with petitions about water rights on the island of Molokai, and while at university I worked on a 65-foot schooner that sailed inter-island teaching kids about ocean resources.

Later, when I owned by own bookshops, I started a women’s group where we gathered every full moon to dance on the beach to the beat of our own drums. That morphed into local community work, which evolved into local political work and getting involved in the 2004 election season, where I then ventured out of my comfort zone to work on the presidential campaign in Boston and DC. For the past few years, I’ve been part of a group fighting the development of a veneer mill and power plant planned for our tiny village.

Meanwhile, in 1995, I’d developed MCS, and as time progressed, I became less and less able to work out in public. I’ve been incredibly lucky these past 10 years to work as an assistant to the chancellor at the local university, where I do communication materials. The incredible thing is, my boss allows me a home office. I used to go into the chancellor’s office every couple of weeks to meet with her, but after they renovated the building with new carpet and furniture a couple of years ago, I couldn’t even do that anymore. Exacerbating the problem was the toxic emissions from our active volcano, called vog, further restricting me from venturing out.

So I knew that if I wanted to continue with some sort of public service activity, I was going to have to figure out how to do something online, where I could do good work, but in the safety of my home office.

And that’s how The Canary Report was born. I thought I could take all the skills I’d developed throughout my working life and public service activities and apply them to creating a super online resource about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Plus, I really love social media, and I wanted to start my own blog and online social network. I thought all those factors might be combined into creating an exciting and worthwhile online project about MCS.

If you look at the way I’ve done public service, community work, and activism throughout my life, you’ll see a pattern of teamwork and collaboration in everything I do. I love organizing things for others, helping with documentation so everyone is informed and included, creating schedules and goals so everyone can participate, helping the group create a common vision. I believe that leadership means listening to all points of view and inspiring all group members to participate. I love empowering people to fight for what’s right, fight for the underdog, protect the weakest of the group, and work hard toward improving the quality of life for everyone. And I love giving people a platform to be heard, to be respected and honored for what we in Hawai‘i call their mana‘o, their opinion.

That’s why The Canary Report has so many contributors and guestbloggers. And that’s why I love our online community so much, there’s so much wisdom there! Providing a platform for others to do good work, to dialogue, to share all they know about MCS makes me very happy. I’m driven with a passion to do all I can to help people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity get the information and support they need to live the healthiest, most productive lives possible. So it makes me very happy to see our thriving network of hundreds of people helping each other cope with MCS.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who is part of The Canary Report’s blog and online social network. I am so proud of our canary community! I’m proud about how kind everyone is to each other, how supportive, wise and compassionate. I want to thank everyone for all your support. Together, we are stronger!

Aloha,

Susie



--

Susie Collins

The Canary Report

Spring in the Mill Town

Spring is here in the Mill Town.  Evidence of the early arrival is everywhere:  great stands of pink trees in bloom line the streets, the sulfur dust of pollen covers the parked cars.  Daffodils are opened to the sunshine, a small fist of them begins to do just that on our tiny porch.

We are living here and the evidence of it is here in this snap of our wheelie home porch, a bit changed since we last posted with a picture.  There is an additional side wall, milk painted a soft and muted tone of green.  The same green that is the color of our ceiling inside.  A lamp lights the partnership corner, a small tea pot from Shirley, a dish of good luck oranges for the new year of The Tiger along with the beautiful red rose petals I saved when my Valentine rose was done with her weeks of brilliance.  A pottery vase filled with a dozen ti leaves from Manoa fan waxy beauty. The small square tiled mirror was a give-away gift made by one of our MCS friends ... part of our annual holiday festivities.  A mirrored view of our abundance is a nice greeting at the door, we think.

Behind the scenes Pete and I have been as busy as beavers let loose in a river with dams to build and water to dam.  Busy, busy, busy.  We have commmitted to creating a new business that will be Pete primarily beavering at an MCS-safe (spring and other seasons) cleaning service.  Many, many things to do to get this right and it is exciting to draw-in all the comments and suggestions from our Canary community who had ideas and experiences with hiring help who really 'get' how to do cleaning that leaves nothing but fresh air behind.  Thank you so very much, Canary Report Canaries for all your wonderful ideas and good wishes!

From the Mill Town we send wishes for a bit of sunshine in your day.

BRAIDING: a metaphor used again and again

www.mrsstitch.com/images/StitchGuide/Braid.jpg

Pete and I have spent the last couple of hours in comfortable companionship in the basement space that is our homespace away from the vardo.  "Nice morning," he said.  "Yes, a new normal ha?"  I said.  Pete continued reading the comics in the one slightly risky wooden chair that is part of our minally accomodating seating choices.  JOTS has not moved from the nest she finds most pleasant, a nest made from the organic cotton sheet that serves as lots of things in our life.  So far, JOTS nest is the most purposeful use thus far.  When we made the choice to build a tiny home on wheels we included the awareness of an extension cord life as essential; the vardo would not provide all the basic needs.  In less than a year we have lived in three different communities/with three different families-friends.  We have learned through those experiences to value the progress we have made and to re-evaluate what else we need to add back into our lives now that the intense spin of a life fueled on adenalin is slowing down.  The metaphor of a braided or unbraided life is one I have used to explain the process, and the metaphor has found its way into the tales I've written:  Sam and Sally was the first, and Wood Crafting came during the year just passed.  Blogs have been the venue of braiding the different voices or views of our lives, and to that process I am grateful.  Written braids have served my healing journey over and over again.

Through the access of keyboards and internet I watch the changing look of information as websites, community networks and blogs change:  a reflection of the authors' evolution.  Self-publishing becomes an organic function that all comers get to experience.  In particular, I observe how The Canary Report and Planet Thrive evolved during the past two years and less.  Both sites focus on the community of MCS and EI (multiple chemical sensitivities and environmental illness).  Both authors live with MCS and each braids their individual personality and focus with different styles.  Each of those community networks has given me and hundreds (thousands more likely) of people with MCS the support, forum for voice, and resources to make informed decisions to aid in a healing journey that fits the unique need of the individual.  Many other resources for the environmentally affected population are now available, among them HEAL, MCS America and CIIN (Chemical Injury Information Network) have served over the longer period of time.  I include these three among the many because I have used the information found there in my own life. 

The Moon and The Time of Wee

Mahina is becoming fuller and brighter every evening, and is nearly as present during the day as she is when the sky is absent of the sun. It will be a full moon on New Year's Eve, and a Blue Moon to boot. That means December and the year 2009 cycles around with a lot of potential. Life from the vardo continues to teach Pete and me to appreciate what is important. The internal work we must do to keep aware of the successes in our wee life is fueled by the energy I receive because I tune to the energy of the moon. Second hand light is different from the brightness of the Sun and yet without it I would miss the nurturing messages that are needed to steady myself from the glaring differences that are a life based on this Economy of Wee. It is important to document the truth of the challenges and the victories of life reassembled by exposure to chemicals. Bloggers are having an incredibly powerful influence of what I'm calling 'second hand light' ... transparency of truth is showing itself everywhere. I take to the word and write a variety blogs because there are so many ways to tell our story. In October of 2008, Susie Collins' author and editor of The Canary Report contributed an article for Blog Action Day. I've clipped excerpts from Susie's article to frame the reality of thousands who live with the everyday challenges of life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. From that article, Collins' wrote:

The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. Blog Action Day 08’s topic is POVERTY. Here is my contribution.

Coping with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a challenge on every front in a person’s life. It impacts employment, housing, social activity, personal relationships, personal care, eating habits, exercise, recreation, and leisure. Health care becomes confusing and disorienting because medical doctors do not recognize MCS and therefore do not know how to help. To add insult to injury, some MDs believe MCS is psychosomatic, and either dismiss complaints or send the patient off to the shrink...

But a cure for MCS is most likely going to be elusive. After all, MCS is not a disease or allergy, it’s a reaction to low level poisoning from toxic chemicals...

So you can see how MCS can catapult a person into poverty. When forced to leave employment because the air is too toxic to breathe, there is no paycheck...And a life on that edge can very quickly spiral into poverty...

This is why too many people with MCS are sleeping in cars or in aluminum trailers in a friend’s back yard. Many who can’t find safe housing or employment hunker down, strip down, go zen, go without, and struggle to adapt to the newfound state of limited resources. This is the world of poverty, and if anyone with MCS thinks this scenario isn’t a heartbeat away, they are fooling themselves. There is no safety net for people with a health condition not recognized by the government or mainstream medical community...

The Canary Report was one of the first places I turned when Pete and I arrived in Seattle after our months of living on the road, in our car. Through the early connection with the growing community of MCSers I learned more about this condition that had changed our lives. Since that initial cyber-connection, The Canary Report has become broader and bigger with an active voice as well as a safe place for seekers of information, comfort and a collective sense of being supported. And VardoForTwo both the blog and our tiny home teach us how important it is to make friends with time and make time for the moon. As Mahina grows in her illumination with the double-whammy of the Blue Moon I'd like to leave a few of the things we do as a result of "strip(ping down, go(ing) zen, and go(ing) without" not as a form of adaptation to a new version of our former way of being in the world. Instead, the Time of Wee has given us valuable insight and preparation for a future coming up very soon when stripping down, going zen and going without will be THE way.

Here are two things we do on a common day or night from VardoForTwo.

Dental Care.

Oil-swishing or oil-pulling and baking soda brushing.

One of the first things to go when your income and your savings are done, is health care insurance and dental care period. Early in the year, we chose food and gas money over health insurance. When I had my last dental check-up with a dentist who was mcs-sensitive and responsive, I was able to pay for the teeth cleaning and initial exam, got sick from the x-ray and from the estimate for the work she out-lined. There is no way for us to pay for the replacement work or the bridges she recommended. Instead, almost ten months ago I began swishing with organic sunflower oil as a way to cleanse the bacteria from my teeth, mouth and gums. I was brushing with unscented coconut oil soap until a couple months ago, when I became sensitized to the soap. So now, I use a very diluted water brushing with baking soda. My NAET practitioner recommended this as an alternative to the dental work I could not afford.

I swish with oil first thing in the morning and last thing at night. The theory and concept for the swishing is here ... I continue to do it because it calms the sensitivities in my teeth, draws the bacteria from my mouth and offers me an alternative I can afford. It's something I can do, doesn't harm me and that matters to my sense of taking care of myself. There may come a time when more needs to be done to care for my teeth. That's not now.

Clothes and shoes

The clothes I own fits in a wire basket under the futon or on the walking stick I use for a clothes hanger in the corner of the vardo. Pete has a wire basket too plus the basement in our friends' home where he keeps his 'for work' clothes purposely separate from the safe haven of our vardo. A pile of five sweaters has just come into Pete's life ... recycled into his life from our friend Doug. The sweaters will need to be washed and aired clear. They have a minimal scent to them, so that is promising news.

I wash my clothes in the shower. The laundry in our friends' home isn't safe for me, so I spend a couple hours two or three times a week hand washing with hot filtered water and baking soda. It's meditative, really good exercise and becomes a routine: when I'm down to one change of clothes, it's time to wash. Drying my wet clothes takes two days, so that's where the planning is essential. Dryers don't work for me. Pete can use the washer up stairs. He dries his clothes on a large metal rack claimed from the old Bon Marche before it became Macy's Department Store. Tonight, a box came for us. It was a gift from my son. The Wonder Washer, a hand washer that I will be able to use to go from shower washing to pressure washing. No electricity just churning and then hand wringing the wet clothes.

We each own a pair of boots. My New Balance boots are trustworthy and serve me well after five years. Pete has a new pair of boots and two muck- abouts that keep him going. It's not a lot, it's just enough.

Support systems

Safety nets for folks living with MCS are hard won. Friends and family are tested to their limits to offer what we truly need. With our VardoForTwo the comfort and assurance of a separate space is a valuable reality. Our friends here in the Mill Town are making the adjustments to their daily life while continuing to use chemicals and fragrances. We adjust. We do not adapt to the choices because that would not be a boundary it would be losing the seed of myself that must remain true to my needs. That is a big challenge ... seeing that adjusting is different from adapting. I have written about that many times and continue to see the value of making adjustments without adapting. Like frogs who estivate to weather a change in climate, the frog does not become something else, the frog draws into itself and allows the body temperature to function until the climate changes back.

With each new encampment Pete and I learn a little or a lot about what it takes to live with others. We learn that this Time of Wee is as much about riding the wave ahead of the collective, pioneering in a fashion. We are living in the light of the moon with less stuff than most, and more challenges than the majority for now. The coming time of Pluto's occupany in the constellation of Capricorn will test more of the collective to live with Wee. Stripping down and going zen or going without are not bad practices. In fact, with practice they will become to way more of Earth's people will need to live to shift with the cosmic gears.

Can you relate to the need to estivate or zen down?

The Naked Truth about MCS

I've always wanted to be a poster girl! Earlier this year Susie Collins author and editor of The Canary Report a blog and social network for and about MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES was inspired by Eva Cabelle of Spain. Eva lives with MCS and took her truth to the whirl of disbelievers and challenged all with her naked truth. That inspiration sparked the idea for creating a calendar focused on the real lives of women living with this incredibly debilitating and isolating environmental illness.

The Calendar is out! 15 women are part of this 2010 calendar The Naked Truth About MCS. The calendar and the article about its release are available online from The Canary Report. All proceeds go to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization involved and educating the collective consciousness with the truth about the every day chemicals, the industries that concoct, market and hold us hostage/addicted to the synthetic world of "products", and the governmental process and politics that fuel the cycle of greed and toxicity.

The photo above is me Ms November... Wahine Toa (warrior woman) taken at the back of VardoForTwo while Pete and I lived on the beautiful oxygen-rich Ledge in the woods. I chose to face the camera as I wish I could face the world: STANDING proudly encamped in a pesticide free zone with the phases of the moon and the radiance of a full spectrum sun. I hold my o'o, the walking stick to remind me of the need to be sustained by nature ... holding on for all I'm worth and using that stick as a weapon if the need arises. Around my neck is a lei of tiny shells a gift from my son on my 60th birthday, linking me to the salt water that is me. The golden wagon safe haven built with due diligence and tears is our singularly safe space. Chemicals surround that wagon on wheels 24/7, awareness and transformed choices based on the knowledge that saner, healthier choices are possible remain minimal.

Here's a project that shouts the naked truth. Thanks to Susie Collins and the women who contributed their versions of MCS truth, check it out and tell your friends, families, your congress men, your congress women, your mayor, your neighbors, the managers at your local co-op, your local drug store! MCS is real, alive and closer to you than you think.

P.S. Ruby my magical laptop made posting this photo possible. Thanks, Ruby!!

A Jumble of Juggling, Sovereignty & Navigating by the Sky with MCS

Anyone who consciously lives with MCS (there are so many more of us who don't yet realize their experiences are an illness/disease and not just a vivid imagination or undiagnosed allergies) knows that searching for safe and supportive community is difficult. Isolation-avoiDANCE the extreme case of independence brought on by the sole 'cure' for this environmental illness can make a dear soul koo-koo. It's lonely without believers and support. Stories of individual human beings and families of beings who live in cars or attempt to live in a safe-for-them haven are showing up in mainstream news. The world is being called to recognize us. So few outside those who live it understand and respond. Thanks to the work of bloggers and social networkers like Susie Collins (The Canary Report) and Julie Genser(Planet Thrive and MCS Safe Homes), MCS community grows in spite of the inconvenience it creates for the mega industries and yet-to-be transformed systems of industry.

During the eleven months of blogging here at VardoForTwo, Pete and I have added two chapters to our six decades of life on the Planet. In Part I (between October 08 and April 09) we chronicled the process of being in one place for more than a few days at a time; and shared our process of building a mobile and mcs-safe mico-home. Once we hitched that micro-home called VardoForTwo to the rental truck in April of this year, Part II began with VardoForTwo on The Ledge in the Woods. Part II is coming to a near conclusion, and gods willing our Part III will begin sometime mid-October. The blog roll written by MCS Canaries has blossomed in the months since we launched VFT. More and more storytellers are getting it down on the page. A great body of work is becoming part of Earth's history. MCS blogs are important stuff. Every story counts, every anecdotal record makes a huge impact on the truth of Earth's condition at present.

I've added two new blogs and added back another blog that was removed when I did some blog-remodeling some while back.

• First there's Daisy O and her husband are building an MCS safe for them Tiny Home. Those who originally starting following our progress to build Kolea Nani (VardoForTwo) might want to give Daisy and KC (her kane) some support and attention as they create their dream. Tiny, moveable or mobile MCS homes is a relatively new subset of the Tiny Home revolution pioneered by people like Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed. Like anything revolutionary, the seeds of change will grow in people/energy fields ripe for creatively and persistently making changes ... not necessarily adapting, surely adjusting though the qualities that translate. Daisy and her husband are one of those new pioneers. Watch them grow.
  
• Another young woman "AMESTRESS" (real name or not) has been blogging since February of 09 ... this just in ... permission to use this description from Amestress's profile: "I am not how I appear. But then again, how would I know? One thing I know is I am very focused on recovering from MCS."

This is a person with the spirit of a dancer, and she dances a lot on her blog. Movement is vital, move it or lose it comes to mind. I've just begun to read her blog and there is plenty to read with more than 800 posts on Life the Final Attempt (not really!) and she has a wit, spunk and style about her that is well ... pure youth. She reminds me of the energy vibe I get when I visit my friend Leslie who blogs on the Oko Box. I can say that with wistful Aunty love from this side of the mountain with more than sixty solar returns on my Brownie Badge. These women give me hope for a sustaining future. Amestress is dealing with the reality of this illness in a way that seems to fit her. MCS is a serious illness that easily flattens the heartiest among us. Discovering those who are living with the seriousness while maintaining their personality(their Sun sign shining through) ... I would guess Amestress is maybe an Aries, Leo or Libra. If I'm lucky she'll tell me and that would be fun. One thing that I'm learning from my jumble of juggling this life is to find wisdom in lots of places: the internet, the common squirrel outside, my kitty Jotz (pure LEO) and for sure, I navigate by the Sky and the wisdom of astrology.

NAVIGATING by the Sky

Saturn(control) SQUARES Uranus(sudden change) and lots of Neptune in my whirl

I am a Hawaiian, and Pete is a Mid-western born Hawaiian in the heart. Someday we will be back on the AINA (on the islands of my birth). One thing is for sure, my culture travels with me and it spills into our Vardo like coconut butter (yummmmm). I am a Hawaiian activist, a believer in the Nation of Hawaii and the rights of Kanaka Maoli (the first people of the islands) as a sovereign and self-governing nation. Our life as wanderers with multiple chemical sensitivites challenges me to maintain my roots. Distance counts for a woman who needs to 'see her people' and MCS creates such a barrier since I can't be near most of my family because they STINK (Seriously Think I'm Not Kidding ... but still aren't fragrance and chemical free). Anyway, I ramble as I juggle. However, I recognize more clearly today the inseparable connection between my life as a woman with MCS and my kuleana (responsiblity) as a Hawaiian sovereignty activist. Both roles are consistent: they seek to be recognized and respected against all odds. There's a lot to be done to have MCS recognized and the solutions in place of the problems; and the Rights of the Kanaka Maoli have been ignored for more than 100 years. What I see in the sky with Saturn and Uranus squaring off during the coming months is an unavoidable shift in the status quo. Things are going to rock! What roots will fly, what flies will root. (watch for this chant in my up-coming fairy tale Tree Skins.)

HOLLOGRAMS: Truth or Untruth

I have been a rabid learner and fan of astrology even though for decades I really hadn't a real clue of what I was looking at when I read my astrology chart. In the early years, I counted on an astrologer to tell me what was on those charts and I tried to understand things, get a feel for the planets, signs. I read "Your Daily Horoscope" bits from the newspaper and then on-line. See, I've always sought answers from the ethers/others and weighed them against my practical (Capricorn) nature. More recently and particularly since we began building our vardo, Elsa P. from ElsaElsa.com has become a first rate astrology teacher. I'm not putting the gal on a pedestal and she would be the first to say DON'T DO IT. Or, if you do it, it's guaranteed you'll be shooting me down when your projection/veil drops. I'm blattering on about who I am, and how I navigate because it's important to me that those who come here know who I really am. I'm an activist. I'm a Hawaiian. Hawaiians are more than an illusion. We are real people who battle to be recognized. Ah, that sound familiar ... We are people with MCS and we battle to be recognized.

Here's where the astrology of things helps me out. I have Neptune (planet of illusion and magic) in my mid-heaven. It's how people see me. That shifts and changes, people see what they want to see and if I'm not sure ... I might let them see what they want even if that's not really me. Confused? Try living inside this gal for 60+ years. (Just kidding, that is not an invitation!) Here's something Elsa wrote several years ago (click there to read the whole article). It illustrates two things: why I like the way she sees astrology in real life, and what it's like to be living with an illusive illness.


...Real unreality is everywhere you turn. You think something is real (Saturn) but hey! Maybe not!

And personally, I am in element. All the sudden I am making sense to people! Intuition (Neptune) is real (Saturn). Magic (Neptune) is real (Saturn) The ethereal is now real and the real is ethereal and it just keeps going back and forth like that.

I began writing fairy tales once I parked myself on the Ledge in the Woods. In my real adult life decades ago I was paid to write corporate training manuals. One old-time friend commented on my blog, "This is the writing that was waiting to be written." Real or unreality?

Ke Ala O Ka Mahina(the Hawaiian moon calendar)

The 'ole days of the moon just past were powerful. Our choice to become more conscious of Mahina's energy (Lunar energy) in our lives, has established a routine of attending to the how and what we have done in small chunks of time. The 'ole days are review times, not more do times.

From the website the HAWAIIAN MOON CALENDAR:

'Ole Ku Kahi, 'Ole Ku Lua 'Ole Ku Kolu, 'Ole Pau (Seventh to tenth nights)

This is an unproductive time, for `ole means 'nothing', 'without', 'unproductive'. The tides are dangerous and high. The sea is rough and fishing is poor. Some recommend that planting be minimal until `ole pau which ends this unproductive period.

In addition to the 'ole days, I considered the retrograde of Mercury (click on that link for some insight) during these 'ole days and weighed the many contacts and communications we've been having or searching out during the last months and especially, the last three weeks.

We have posted ads, responded to emails and gone back and forth with communications since July with people who might have a place for us to hook-up our vardo and create community with us. The process is hard work, a full-time job and the pay ... is invisible, internal. Like blogging where the blogger can never know who will come to visit/comment/be affected most of our contacts with people are 'stranger meeting stranger.' I know, the internet is all about this sort of relationship, all the more Neptune to spread the mischief of pretense. What is valuable for this post is our intent to be honest, respectful and real in all our communication. Smoke and mirrors abound, and if we pretend to be something we aren't, well we're at major risk. Here's a snip from the latest email and reply between a kind woman who was considering sharing her home with us after reading a flier we left on a bulletin board.

I said,

"Thank you very much for these communications. Our life is one of very clear boundaries, without them we are at risk. We have decided based on our communication back and forth, to pursue other options. Good luck with your search for congenial and trustworthy folk to share your space. I'm happy to learn you are making conscious scent/chemical free choices (she has consciously decided not to use pesticides on her land/home), and wish your daughter safe and gentle times. We are very good people, and you sound like one fine person and a very responsive/loving mom. (Her daughter is fragrance and chemical sensitive). MCS folks are not always as fortunate to have understand and responsive family."

She said in reply,

I have appreciated our communication, and wish you best of luck in your search for the right spot for you both. I have been a bit inspired by the room you built, and am interested in many aspects of healthy, sustainable living/dwelling. It feels like we are so off on the wrong foot in much of our culture, and our immune systems are less able to handle the onslaught. Wishing you fine people good health and happiness.

Mercury continues to be retrograde until the 29th (tomorrow) and there are options for winter space pending ... the options are in our IN BOX, and we're waiting while doing what can be done. This post is something I can do to make my intentions and my identity as honest and real as I can. It will be important as the next chapter of our unfolding lives offers up a blank slate. It is very possible this blog will change significantly when we leave the Ledge. Perhaps with that in my intuitive mind, I wrote Part 2 of the fairy tale WOOD CRAFTING so I'd remember what it was really like to live with fairies, the nature of trees and the possibilities of magic.

From the floor in VardoForTwo on the Ledge in the Woods,
Mokihana


Photo Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Egypt.jpg

Sunday Silliness

The 'ole days and nights of the moon just passed must have really shaken up my hard drive. Thank the gods! All this cleaning and clearing space is transferring some good over this way. So many files of seriousness gets to be too much.

Late last night (about 8:40Pm on the ledge) something drew me to The Canary Report Forum ... 'CHAT' ... something fun ... something sorta new to me this internet social community thing ... there were a few folks there ... two friends ... one old, familiar to me and one a new friend. I jumped in.

Here's the bit that is inspiring me to turn part of every Sunday into Sunday Silliness. By the time I turned the compooter over to Pete for his go round on the cyber-hiway there was just a whole lot of sillines going on there! Goofiness and going back and forth with nothing serious. Oh the shear fun of things that came from folks who live with very, very, very, serious and serious sensitivities.

HERE WE GO 1 MINUTE OF SILLINESS:

"What do you call a rabbits walking backwards?"

A receding hare line!

While you're thinking of something silly ... do a bunch of laughing yoga. Laugh out loud .... ha, ha, ha,ha, ha.

"What did the ocean say to the beach?"

Nothing. Just wave.



Hmmmm. This is gonna take some practice. Okay, more laughing yoga ......... ha, ha ha, ha, .....

Pete is helping me with this exercise(occupying the futon, under the covers), this One Minute of Silliness.

"Okay, if you start this you can't go back?"

"Ha?" I'm taken back a step.

"Everyday, you're gonna need silliness EVERYYDAY."

"REALLY?" oH my god, I was caught by the serious demons .... I get it, I get it.

Do a little more laughing yoga .... ha, ha, ha!!!!!

Oh, ho, ohhh ... one of my very funny, sweet and saucy friends Leslie R over at Oko Box has one of the giggliest photo and post with comments about HUGE SUNFLOWERS. Click here to go there.


Your first dose of Sunday Silliness from the Ledge in the Woods inside VardoForTwo.

Now ... you go

Photo Credits above: Laughing Hyena and Maitrey laughing buddha

Got a joke?
Share some Sunday silliness right here.

ALCHEMY of hope: riding out toxic exposures, inviting saving graces

Pete and Jots taking a good long read in the dandelions

Life on the Ledge in the Woods is culling us down, like a head of romaine lettuce with outer leaves tattered by whatever has happened to it the heart of the whole lies there. Our journey to the Ledge has tested our belief that there is indeed a reason for our being here. Pete and I are stepping through the most recent exposure to herbicides ... denying it can be happening doesn't work, and even the best of safe-guarding don't prevent people from choosing to do harmful things. We have done what can be done at this point: make contact with the State of Washington Pesticide Sensitive Registry person and will get the local applicator of herbicides on the list with the goal of being informed of any future spraying before it happens. Then, there is the issue of testing our drinking water (from a well here on the land) to see whether the ground water is safe. We're checking into that.

It was a difficult time last night, going through the bottoming out of an exposure when the emotions are darkest and the light dimmest. Thanks to Susie Collins' The Canary Report Forum I have found a place to put my question "What do you do when exposed to Herbicides?" out there for feedback. Useful and supportive replies filled me with hope this morning. I use these blogs to express the truth of my experiences. What may not get as much 'press' is the incredibly costly investment of time and energy my mate and caretaker Pete expends while on the clock. It's a full-time job and the pay ... well, the money's not great yet hopefully the fringe benefits remain to sustain him. All you who care for mates and partners, parents and children with MCS are a clan of merit. Thank you.

Another bit of hope and connection came from Julie Genser, Founder of Planet Thrive. We have been in contact with this insightful woman and today she has published an interview with us Vardo folks. We are honored and thrilled to be part of Julie's new website MCS SAFE HOUSING. The interview GYPSY LIFE: Notes from the Diaspora was a thoughtful and thorough conversation that makes me believe there is a purpose for this journey. Humanity is part of a whole multiplicity of life on Earth, it is not the dominator nor the reason for life here. Creating safe homes and being safe for all OTHERS is not a grand purpose ... it is the purpose.

Mahalo to all the Graces in our life.

Whoops! This just in

Before a walk, here's a link to Susie Collins' (Editor of The Canary Report) letter to President Elect Obama. Least I forget why we're here building VardoForTwo.
http://www.thecanaryreport.org/2008/11/08/a-letter-to-president-elect-obama/#comment-1364