Owl hoots

"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."
-The Fourth House, Dana Gerhardt

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, pueo 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. 

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.

The boil is on.  Steam starts to rise.  Pueo 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.

My venture over to Its All Compost 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 PRIME THE PUMP 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 (above) to read the stories.  Join in if you've an itch to write in community.

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 home by walking the dozen steps here, and clicking http://www.vardofortwo.blogspot.com/.

To listen to the Spotted Owl click here: 

Aloha,
Mokihana

Where do you call home?



Imagine credit: http://www.susty.com/

Shifts and Changes at Vardo For Two ... tell me something new

We're making some changes here. 

The focus of the blog and the writing will evolve. Pete will be doing more and more of the writing, and posting of photos (he's working on the camera and computer) . I'll keep my Al-Anon posts-journal newly begun, as a way to work my program of recovery as a way to 'be in the Rooms.' My Astrology posts will continue, too. These two forms of 'superpower' save my life over the long haul, so I'll keep coming back to writing these types of posts/articles.


More of my attention will shift to writing and creating fertile ground over at my writer's blog It's All Compost. Thanks to the process of blogging, living and learning here at VardoForTwo, I have fueled myself with enough healing to focus on writing for a living, again. In a new and composted version of myself, It's All Compost will take the fertile ground made here to plant new seeds of writing and sharing.

To read the whole story about our Shifts and Changes please go to the side-bar "Shifts and Changes"

Tell us, is there something new and exciting in your life today?
 

Don't get around much anymore ... uncovering the stigma of disability

"Don't get around much anymore."  That's the name of an old song that old women like me remember.  Nat King Cole sings that one, but I've linked to the gravel-voice of Rod Stewart to fuel this post.

Listen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDaxCRDfXK0&feature=related

The lyrics start ...

Been invited on dates

I might have gone but what for

It's awfully different without you

Don't get around much anymore

Awfully different without you

Don't get around much anymore

I've been learning to live with the toxic drift of everyday/everynight Earth for seven years.  Diagnosis of MCS confirmed the things I knew were happening, credence to the things that made me more and more phobic and isolated. 

Writing and then blogging allowed me to tap into the well of resilience that comes from the Universe.  I discovered or remembered new and ancient sources of resilience to deal with my new life.

There are 4 Personal Super-powers  I call on one day at a time:

1.  Astrology
This was a source I'd tapped in years ago, but in such a different and passive way many years ago.  An ancient art and navigational tool came alive for me when I began to rebuild a life from a dream of a Gypsy's wagon.

I discussed Astrology in Real Life through the blog pages of a woman named Elsa P.  She has helped me navigate in unexpected ways.  I credit her here on VardoForTwo often because like the song says, "I don't get around much anymore."

Clipart credit:

2.  AL-ANON
Being affected by another's choices is not a new experience for me.  I was born into a family disease of alcohol, and found my way into the rooms (when I was still able to be in a room, and a roomful of people with fragrance and chemicals) of 12-Step Meetings.  When my disability escalated in 2007, my 12-Step life took a spiral.  My connection to the one day at a time practice had to be done one-on-one with my Higher Power and my sponsor of many years via the cellphone.

This practice sustains me still.

3.  Blogs and blogging
We had a very old Sony laptop that made blog world happen for me.  Ruby, the Laptop hung in there to chronicle the building of a safe haven through blogging.  I learned to reach out through other bloggers who also lived with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.  I slowly built a support network, and we built VardoForTwo with a few internet friends who watched us reassemble a life.

I birthed blog after blog.  Therapy at the keyboard.  And then, Ruby passed on worn from the road and the wear.  It isn't easy to replace a piece of equipment when you live with sensitivities to material and new product.  It took a year to find this laptop ... a hand-me-down from our new friends Eileen and Mary.

Thank you for the connection.
4..  Masks
Covering up is both a process and a survival technique.  Thousands of us seek out the protection of masks that we can wear to make exposure to the environment possible.  Some of us wear 'em on the outside, some wear 'em on the inside.  I think that's part of the lyrics to (another) song I love ... Bette Midler?

The mask I wear, and often have dangling off one ear is the I Can Breathe Mask.  The one I have now is a 'designer lace' get-up prettier than many I've had.  It is outfitted with a carbon-filter that can be replaced, and the lace is polyester that I can tolerate.  There's always a mask tucked into my pocket or purse.

With the New Year of the Rabbit starting today, I'm hopeful and energized by the alignment of planets in the sign of Saturn.  I'm a Saturn-ruled old woman and count on the ancient charts to offer me signals.  It's not easy, I gotta tell you, and I keep digging through the ashes looking for the next ...

How do you cope with disability?  Can you relate to wearing your mask on the inside as well as on the outside?

Let the sun shine in ... Aquarius dawning ... revolution, evolution

The view from the Quonset window is a stand of tree skins streaked with light.  Sun.  The morning is cold and clear. I was up earlier this morning, and came into a very cool cooking hut.  JOTS was huddled by the heater and ready to escape the premises for her natural duties. My thoughts were swhirling thinking about my family back on O'ahu. We are gathering our energy to aid in the healing of one of our dearest, and it's important for one like me who absorb energy at such deep levels to attend to what is 'mine' and maintain connection without collapse. All easier said than done, but it counts to pay attention ...

I checked in with Elsa in time to attend to the stellium of planets congregating in Aquarius.  Here's what she had to say: (click on the link to read the whole post)

The Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Ceres all gather in Aquarius on February 3, 2011. This is on the heels of the new moon the day before. Talk about a revolution!

There is a nice wrinkle here in that Saturn (ruler of Aquarius) is in in the sign of it’s exaltation, Libra, which trines Aquarius.


I see this as an extraordinary opportunity. To take advantage, note the house where the stellium falls in your chart and brainstorm how you can innovate and liberate yourself or others as it relates to that house.

The stellium of planets in Aquarius will be in my 1st House.  The Aquarius party will be in Pete's 5th House.

 Dana Gerhardt at Astro.com offered this for our 1st and 5th House Brainstorming:(Click on the link for the complete articles, and more about the houses that might trigger brainstorming of your own.)

The 1st House

..."Writing about the 1st house, astrologer Dane Rudhyar stresses the need to separate yourself from its early influences, the personal, social and cultural conditioning that mothered you.4 The work of the 1st house is to keep birthing yourself, which means to keep separating, to keep honoring what’s different about you... it’s about accepting the gift of being distinct. On a deeply spiritual level we may recognize we’re all one, interconnected and interdependent. Yet it’s also true that the whole does its most productive and creative work through individuals. When you embrace your individuality, you come closer to fulfilling your destiny. You gain access to more inner resources. You become more authentically formed.

The 5th House

"Within your 5th house lives a wild spirit too. It wants to shake up your sleepy life. It wants to stimulate your ecstasy for being in the moment ...It is well known that when transits or progressions energize the 5th house, people do uncharacteristic things. They have affairs. They buy flashy new cars. They dream of running away to the circus. They behave, in short, like children... There is vital life force energy in the 5th house. When the emotional life is thus nurtured, power gathers. There is energy to create. Or procreate. There is enthusiasm for life. One is vibrant and radiant... "

'OLE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF THE HAWAIIAN MOON CALENDAR

The 'Ole Cycle of three nights have begun.  Like I said in the previous post, it is sometimes hard to catch my breath ... and I miss dates and 'ole nights, too.

Our practice here on our blogs is to refrain from new posts during the 'Ole Cycles.  There are three this time, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. 

In the Hawaiian Moon Calendar these are named: 

'Ole Ku Kahi, 'Ole Ku Lua, 'Ole Pau


(Twenty-first to twenty-third nights)


First, second and last `Ole nights. This is a time that is not recommended for planting or fishing. It is windy and tides will run high. Farmers use this time for weeding. `Ole pau and Kaloa kukahi are the kapu periods of the akua Kanaloa and Kaloa and offering are made with pule(prayer).

A hui hou.

NEW BLOG ... Q and A from Vardo For Two

We have created a new blog.  It's called Q and A from Vardo For Two.  Pete and I have been communicating with more folks beginning or thinking about building a safe haven similar to our vardo. 

QandA From VardoForTwo is a place to ask questions about the process of building BEFORE you get fully into it. If you have begun and find yourself with a muddle to work through, maybe we've muddled through a similar thing.


Rather than address individual questions through email (which is still a good thing) ONLY, we'd like to spread the information whenever possible to make best use of the energy involved in answering.

YOUR COMMENTS will fuel this blog. It does, it seems to us, take time and the energy of many to make change and then change is uncontrollable.


If you're thinking about building a moveable safe haven this winter and need to run your ideas by someone(s) who have been on the journey leave a comment/question/idea by us here with your comment.

This new blog and format for directing questions might be useful for the need for safe housing is still the #1 issue for so many of us.  A vardo-like home is one possibility.  Mindful process and support through the journey have been essential.  Go to the new blog with your questions, mullings or quandries.

All the best,
Mokihana and Pete

The V-42 ... can you guess the shape of such a thing? It's a plane, no, a plan ...

"The Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster was an experimental bomber aircraft, designed for a high top speed. The unconventional approach was to mount the two engines within the fuselage driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers mounted at the tail, leaving the wing and fuselage clean and free of drag-inducing protrusions. Two prototype aircraft were built, but the end of World War II changed priorities and the advent of the jet engine gave an alternative way toward achieving high speed." 

-both photo and description above are from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warmth has returned to the Pacific Northwest.  "Warmth" being relative, my brother would still shake in disbelief when I tell him it's 40-something and we like it.  JOTS is in kitty-land bliss:  the slantboard with the lamp on over head.  The quonset is warm.  Through the leg of my wolly sweats, my thigh is toasty. 

Winter is difficult for lots of folks.  I've been to two friends with blogs in different parts of the North American continent to catch up on their lives since these tutu in the vardo have been living their lives.  My heart goes out to 'em.  We send prayers and soon a little bit of support to help in other ways.  The pipes here have unthawed, the hoses run water to our sink and the breezes are blowing through the tall trees.  I'm just back from my first stroll since just as Christmas, and I feel good!  The migraines have passed, at least for the now and I have experienced more of my real life.  If there is some lesson that came from those pre-ecliptic slams on the insides of my head it might be:

1. keep an open-mind (put don't let your brains fall out!)
2. reach out (how would I know I could get by with a little help from a Coke?)
3. amazing grace comes from all sorts of places/spaces (pain being one of them)

Just a few days ago we got a comment from our long-time cyber friend Liberty.  She referred to our blog with a tag that I've not recognized as a form of naming.  I loved it, and laughed when I saw how you get called what you get called and sometimes it works/sticks or just becomes a plan.  She referred to Vardo For Two as V42.  Thanks, Libby.

Necessity has long been one of the reasons for invention, in Frank Zappa's case I don't know?  Anyway today's post is a meandering thing, like thawing pipes I'm innocent in the flow of things.  Being human here on the Island in the Sound with no radio on, and WHAT?  It feels like home to me.

Tiles B4 floor

Winter, 2008

White Center, WA.

 The V-42

newly topped, tiled and not yet ready to be home

White Center, WA

Winter, 2008

Life here on the Earth is an experience.  An experiment?  I read somewhere that we are the gift Creator gave to us.  What we make of ourselves is what we give to the Creator.  Hmm?

New Year ... shorts only ( if only we could be wearing 'em now!)

JOTS my blogging pal is watching from the slant board. For the time being I am perched on the kitchen stool under a lot of clothes.  This laptop is groaning so let's just hope it's not its last lap.

The cold snap brought in 2011 up and down the Pacific Coast.  The water hose and drains are frozen and I have a new experience to understand, and though I have reluctantly been initiated into yet another club that I would not choose to join ( I have never been much of a clubber), my friend Leslie helped me limp into the arms of those with MCS AND Migraine headaches.  Nights are the worst for me, frigid, dry air triggered the first pain of a different dimension.  Thanks to many friends I learned to:

• add humidity to the Vardo to soothe my sinuses; a boiling kettle from the quonset helps, wet towels hung on clothes line adds some relief; bending my bowed head over that steaming kettle got me through the first couple of days.
• the saline warm water rinse soothed my sinuses; and does so daily
• a nasal spray called XCLEAR is an overthecounter saline and XYLITOL spray that helps

When the headaches came back with colors and patterned lights I called Leslie, and she helped me into the fold of migraines.  Though ironically comforting, this latest initiation is a heck of a way to begin the new year.  STILL, there is something about these trials that amaze and ring through ... "Those that sustain you while you are in need beyond imagination, they are to be blessed.  Mahalo Honey, Pete"

• Dark sunglasses (thank you Maui Jim's) help when light sensitivities requires darkness even at night
• I don't do pain meds, so thank Akua, for now the Southern Remedy and caffeine-endorphin rush from COKE helped me through the night and I was migraine free through my  first night in 4.

22 Degrees outside, and 50 in the quonset.  EMS (electromagnetic sensitivity) is causing problems, and might be aggrevating my old kino (body).  So, this is short, and then there will be more changes coming. It's wonderful how my dreams take me to steaming hot places and clear saltwater and white sandy places at night.  There are so many dimensions of reality. 

Last short

Thank God for the journalists who still keep the news we need to know coming ... JOAN Conrow that would be you.

Joan Conrow thank you for keeping us posted about one of our Kuliouou Valley heroes, Henry Noa.  When I'm able I will  tell you readers about Kuliouou Valley, and among the people of that place there is Henry Noa and the Correa-Reeves 'Ohana.

Never say never to anything.  I'm gonna sip on the second can of coke in two days, after what ... 15, 20 years?  Yup, never say never.

Hauoli Makahiki Hou,
Mokihana, Pete and JOTS

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

The Pineapple Express continues to chug across the Pacific with its wet bounty.  The rain drops onto the quonset and I have the kitchen to myself.  JOTS is out doing kitty things and Pete and I have traded places between vardo and quonset.  Outside I hear the birdsong of a Toehee hunting up breakfast. 

Harvest is a long-term process.  As this year draws to an end, and Christmas Eve dawns here in the forest I can see the lightening sky through the tall trees.  It's like that with us this Christmas Eve we have many blessings to count. 

Continuing where I left off yesterday there are 3 more things to recount and review from Julie Genser's interview. 

7) openness to sharing resources

TODAY
When we built VardoForTwo we did it knowing the tiny home was primarily a bedroom built to be a safe haven.  We used all the resources we had at the time to build it stout, safe and road ready. 


Home includes much more than a bedroom, but that was what we needed most.  The leap of faith we took with creating VardoForTwo was to believe that we would find people, place and situation where we could share resources. 


Stop 1-The Ledge


We arrived exhausted and fragile.  Our old friends had also taken a leap of faith giving us the spot on their land to land.  We found comfort in that act, made the ledge which had been till then a kind of salvage heap with a grand view of a fresh-water pond.  We refreshed ourselves, our souls and began learning what it took to share resources.


We stayed 6 months and found that even with the best of intentions, friendship has its limit and boundary setting is not an easy practice.  We arrived and lived from a near constant state of post-traumatic-stress and did the best we could to maintain our lives and health.  Educating friends who are not MCS aware is a long-term commitment; change is not easy under the best of times.  We are grateful we had a place to begin and I recognize the limits of old friendships.


Stop 2-The field in Bend


We had no place to go when we left The Ledge.  A long shot of a possibility took us on a journey across the pass to Bend, Oregon.  New friends, made over the internet, also living with MCS gave us hope for somewhere to be for our first winter.  The risk was enormous:  Bend was foreign land, the new friends were NEW, and winter in Bend meant deep winter.


What we learned in Bend is sharing resources with others even when you have an illness like MCS in common is not enough to build an intentional community, especially in winter.  Friendship develops and doesn't grow strong over night or in a season.  We planted seeds of friendship and learned some of the complexity of building community is multiplied when MCS and its myriad symptoms challenge decision making, and social intercourse. 


We stayed in the field for a month, became a friendship with two young people with similar though different dreams for a safe community and then packed up before winter snowed us in. 


Stop 3-Everett


Long time friends and supporters offered us a place to pull VardoForTwo.  The mill town setting would really test the limits of friendship and community.  Once again we were road y weary upon arrival, and yet we were stronger than we were when first we lived with these old friends. 


Tucked into space in front of and then between the large old mill town houses we brought such out-of-the-boxness to Everett.  We arrived in early November, 2009  and left on May Day, 2010.  We had a place to sleep, electricity to warm us and a basement where we set up our kitchen, used a bathroom, and generally spread our chattel into our friends' life.  They were accomodating, and loving.  The limits to there ability to be fragrance and chemical free made contact and socialization difficult.  Many deaths and losses happened during the winter of 2009 and that added to the process of sharing and caring.  We contributed in ways we could and I reached a new bottom emotionally, broke an elbow and arm while out walking and our relationships were tested.


We left Everett when the neighbors next door building a new house were ready to paint the big new mansion.  We'd stretched our welcome and tolerance for the city to a limit and had somewhere to go for a month.  We packed up once again and made our shortest trek for a place to be since our life as Gypsies began three years prior.




Stop 4-Whidbey Island


For the first time in three years we had a house all to ourselves.  We made arrangements with an MCS couple to work for rent in exchange for parking our VardoForTwo in their driveway and use their MCS-safe cottage in South Whidbey Island.  It was a wonderful feeling to be in the woods, parked on flat land with an extension cord fort electricity pulled into a cottage where no one else lived.  We felt an unfamiliar sense of freedom and relief.  We let-down our guard and crashed into the luxury of amenities.


Resiliency comes with practice.  We have had lots of practice and with the VardoForTwo as our kernel of safety our four weeks in the Whidbey cottage gave us time to seek out a more permanent place to stay.  We learned to use timing in our favor:  it was Spring and though the seasonal allergies were real for me (Scotch Broom !) we began searching for a place to be on the Island. 


Having a place where we could tend to the basics:  sleep, cook, bathe, wash and dry our clothes safely, breath fresh air and be in the quiet of the woods, we began feretting out this new place.  We have known Whidbey Island, though never lived here.  We posted a photo and a call for a place to park and hook-up.  People were very interested in the tiny home and we received many calls, first for us.  One of those folk also lives with MCS.  We visited her home in the deep woods of the Maxwelton Valley area but I was reactive to the cedar siding and something else.  We didn't move in there, but Pete has become her caregiver helping her with a sundry of different things every week.  

Whidbey Island has its own "Craigslist" ... it's Drewslist and it works like a magnet for local needs, wants and goings-on.  Through our MCS friend and DrewsList we met our friends who share their land, ducks, chickens and friendship with us.  We rent a space that gives us many ways to share resources:  Pete does all manner of fix-ems, I cook crockpots of food once a week and they have introduced us to the folk and groups who are of like mind and intentions.   

8) laughter whenever possible, if not more
TODAY
There's always room for a little more laughter.  Like today when Pete locked me into the vardo until I settled the checkbook.  Feeling like Rapunzel I made my way through weeks of reconciliation.  Then I walked to the locked door and realized, "Hay, I have the dead bolt lock on my side of the door!"  Pete laughed at me when I stood on the vardo porch, "Wondered how long it would take you to realize that." 

We are often befuddled by the reality of our day, and forgetfull of where our keys, cellphone, mask, scarf etc. are.  Still we get through it and make shift with the short-falls. It lightens the load so much.
9) fragrance- and chemical-free
TODAY

We both maintain the fragrance and chemical - free world we inhabit as much as we can.  We can do that much of the time.  What we can't do is make others change, or be as f&c-free as we are.  We educate and then try to be the example of what we ask of others.  It works sometimes, and sometimes people do what they can and it falls short of what we need.  So, we do what we can to change ourselves: a shift in attitude, a shift in position, a softening of expectation. 

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

TODAY

This is the the partnership of most value in my life.  I try to see the Divine in the everyday.  Pete and JOTS and I just returned from a nice long walk through the woods around the bottom half of the land upon which we live.  The winter starkness is perfect for trimming out trails and reclaiming paths.  Armed with my o'o and Pete with lopers we had a very pleasant time.  The island woods are very thirsty and seem to absorb the drenching rains leaving very little on the surface. We hope there is space for us to bring family and friends to expand the community of this land.  We spend time with Papa Honua (the land/Earth) and tend her carefully.

Intentional community grows with time.  We count ourselves lucky to have time to grow, and thank Ke Akua for the life that grows slow and steady.

Change and Continuity

I've noticed a climb in the number of visitors to Vardo For Two in the last few days, and wondered what might account for the traffic.  Then it occurred to me, perhaps folks are using the MCS calendar girl calendars, and there I would be "November."  I chose to be the November calendar woman because I celebrate a solar return mid-November, and it's always nice to have a reason to celebrate coming to Earth.  Seems like such a long time since that project became.  If indeed the calendar is bringing new visitors that would be a good thing.

Those who are new to our blogs, there are ventures posted here that chronicle life with MCS and the challenges that try the metal of a human's soul.  Two years of postings include the formidable reality of life that changes when 'being out of control' is the mantra of the day/night/week/month/year.  Solutions and support come at different times and in degrees or leaps.  Always, the choice to remain hopeful varies.  Though I write from other places now, it is always heartening to see the Vardo for Two draws the attention of those who might be seeking hope, inspiration, connection.  Vardo For Two was written to tether my hope to a universe of unseen others who may or may not relate to the daily life of wanderers, homelessness by most standards, yet resilient and creative in our methods of staying alive and hoping to regain a sense of innocence, again.

MCS is for me an illness and a soul-storm that has blown the leaves off my limbs (more than once) and as that storm has bore me naked there is my soul of origin and faith springs.  We human beings may be in a place in our history when the capacity to mourn, grieve and move through life more human (if that is possible) because so many of us are humbled by whatever ails us.  Secretively enduring what ails because there is the shame of frailty or illness is common.  I have endured. 

Our Vardo for Two has served as a seed of hope from which Pete and I craft a new sort of life.  Growth springs from the vardo, and this winter is a season of staying where we are ... a very new world this winter.  We built a tiny safe space to re-learn our place on Earth.  The process is laborious and the relationships that end or start during this process are unpredictable.  I hope those who come here out of curiosity will find something in the pages of the blog to fuel our journey.  There are more than one blog to explore from Vardo for Two ... perhaps something there will spark something of value.

It's All Souls Day.  Blessings to all souls still in the flesh and others who watch us all and forgive us our sins,
Mokihana

Serenity

"...Without it wounds are slow to heal.  With it all things are possible."

-From the Healing Runes

I commit to more practice, daily, every day, of serenity.  The first pair of new boots I've bought in several years enclose my feet and ankles to aid the restoration of weakened ankles.  I'm getting used to them.

A douser from the Island comes to help me with energies affecting me where we live in the forest.  We wish to stay here.  Gods willing the serenity I need to accept comes as part of that 'all things are possible.'

I'm stitching up a sweet Penny Pouch for the Vardo's Abundance Corner.  A meditative hand-stitching project that keeps me in the practice a stitch at a time.  Once the dousing cures have been set, the Penny Pouch will hang in the Fortune Corner. 

(...for more information about Feng Shui, Abundance, Fortune Corner there are many books to glean meaning for you.  I have enjoyed The Feng Shui of Abundance by Hilton for many years, and it's from that resource that the idea of the Penny Pouch did spring.)

What now my love?

Summer sky fills the view from Computer Station #9 here in the Langley Library.  JOTS is curled into the old beach towel in her porch bed-box on the vardo, Pete is off to Everett and I enjoy another hour at the boards.  Staying in the moment to experience time now, the needs that will come when summer turns to winter can be put on 'pause' and fear is calmed if not replaced with prayers of gratitude.  "Thank God!" for the now I imagined was possible.  Faith needs a respite from the planning, so that is what happened this morning.  As I woke from sleep, still tagged with the remnants of the dreams I thought of a new writing project that could be very fun to cobble together.  Those unedited inspirations are always fun to entertain and like those prayers of gratitude the unedited first thoughts that are free from fear are such precious things.  The writing project has something to do with creating a kind of guide that Nomads such as Pete, JOTS and I would pass along to those who might take up this sort of road -- less traveled, yet as the world spins, might become part of the collective imaginings. 

A year ago Julie Genser creator of the blog and internet community PLANET THRIVE did a interview with us.  The link is here.  That link and onversation we had with Julie continues to be a truthful foundation.  The interview also includes a very useful addition link to another of our blogs that is a place where others thinking of building a mobile safe haven might find practice questions to ask and answer BEFORE striking out on the venture.  The interview is where we began, and now there are things to add.  When I heard my brother describe my life to an old friend as "she's nomadic" a chill washed through me.  It's still difficult to describe ... the feeling.  That writing project comes from my brother's description both because of how he said it, and more importantly because of who he is.  We have long history and the past has etched itself into our lives with common and uncommon threads.

What now my lovely life?  How can we share the journey in yet another fashion that could aid another Nomad?  We shall see said the blind-one.  We shall see.

Munching on the day

The library is filled with young voices, the corner just beyond my right eye entertains a gaggle of pre-schoolers dressed in summer garb and the excitement of fresh life.  In a lifetime so long ago, these young sprouts were my world and my first experience with life as a teacher.  Life continues to teach and teach and teach.

Pete is off island for the day, back in Everett creating a new look to the small patch of lawn where once we parked the VardoForTwo.  Today he will lay in some sod to make a comfy place for feet and paws.  The summer sun will make his work the sort he enjoys, those old muscles fill with energy-memory of how to do those tasks.  I have been to the beach for a morning walk at low-tide, but first JOTS and I spent the earlier hours quietly muching on the beauty of a summer morning in the forrest.  The cathedral ceiling forrest kitchen serves us fully.  The old table toted hether and yond is now raised so we are no longer bent to use the hotplate.  Pete's sink works perfectly with a tiny drip from the reclaimed faucet, I am able to fill a bowl, kettle or sink with running water.  This morning, the warmth of the summer sun called me to the wonderful wee deck on the other side of the futon.  New gifts are out on the deck thanks to our island friends:  a set of colorful pottery in the hues of Tuscany invite us to sit.  A large square platter that will fill will pasta some summer evening, a tall vase at least a foot and a half tall waits for something to come, and a narrow trough of a dish long enough for a loaf of crunchy bread are the trio of raffle ticket rewards thanks to the Transition Whidbey potluck we were at earlier this week.  While we wait for the pasta, flowers and crunchy bread to fill the Tuscan crockery, we have gifts of the oracle doing the serving-up.  Our first set of runes (the stones not the cards) came to us yesterday.  Ralph Blum has passed sets of the rune stones on to our friend Eileen, and she in turn passed The Runes of Healing on to us.  If food is medicine for the physical body, the runes are the direction finders for the body, mind and soul.  We have runes facing up from the large square platter, and a bag of runes and the book The Runes of Healing stand-ins for that crunchy bread yet to come.

Soon after Pete came to give me a kiss and tell me he was off for Everett, I pulled myself from the futon and walked to the deck to munch on the day beginning with moments to call on the divine for inspiration.  I sat with the gifts on that deck and in the early hour of this day did pull four runes.  From memory, they were WISDOM, GUILT, DENIAL, SURRENDER.  Today is all.  It is what I own just for the moment.  No doubt there is the old guilt that weighs too heavy, and with the brightness of summer sun the secrets come un-covered.  Will all be well tomorrow, next month, this winter?  Wisdom says 'Surrender.'  What a menu for munching on the day.  Thank you.

How have the runes offered you a menu for the day?

Living in the Woods again

We have been busy inching our way back into the Woods, again.  The 'Ole Cycle of four days and nights have just past and just in the nick of moon time, we did find a path to the woods where the Wee Wheelie Home of Vardo for Two plus One is now encamped.

Whidbey Island.  That is where are are living with the forrest floor, damp and mossy with White Pine and many many Cedar and Fir to remind us of our relative importance to the whole of All.  Two very kind women share their piece of land with us three vardo folk.  We pay them a rent that is affordable, and from the woods we have access to the things we need.  The women live with many animals including two dogs, an unknown number of inside cats, a string of quaky ducks and young chickens who will soon be laying eggs.  JOTS is appreciated for her skill as huntress, and we make our prayers to the beasties, and have conversations with her that include, "Kill only to eat!"

We are recouping from the painstaking work of going from one place to another; Pete masterfully moves our chattels and I set about making 'home' where we are while attending to the messages my body sends when there is no more energy to pour out.  I have rested during most of the 'Ole Moon times; and was so glad to see Hina the Moon in the midday of this Saturday.  Living in tune with Nature Time is different than some.

There is a community of like-minded folk who are open and positive about the style of living we practice.  Connecting with them has been delightful.  I have a cutting of fresh comfrey being bundled for me this afternoon for I am in deed our comfrey's bone-mending remedy ... my ankle has been hurt and only now can I spend time and mending on the small yet essential joint that holds this old body upright.

We are setting up our second summer outdoor kitchen using the metal framework from an old green house.  QUESTION TO ANY ECO-WOODS FOLK:  I am thinking of using organic canvas for covering, and need to 'waterproof' it.  Has anyone used a recipe of warmed beeswax and oils to coat canvas?  Any other ideas or non-toxic recipes for water-proofing are most welcome.

I'd love to hear from you. 

Aloha to you where you be.
Mokihana and Pete

Living with the Limits

Aloha all,

Pete and I have been living from VardoForTwo learning over and over again, the limits of a human reality and the the value of asking for help when the limits stop us.  There are thanks to be given, and then there is more work to do.

First, the thanks

1.  TO ALL WHO HAVE COME TO THE FIRST CANARY CARAVAN CARNIVAL.  Mahalo for making the click to our blog to read the stories, prose, tangents and angles shared during the three day MCS Awareness hoopla.  The Carnival attracted double the number of visits here ... so that's great news!

2.  IMPERFECT OPTIONS.  The library systems here in Washington and in other states we have be in, offer connectivity that many would not have otherwise.  For an EI-MCSer, the option is often difficult and imperfect ... the exposures to chemicals and fragrance are high.  With recovery and preparation (a mask, oxygen and timing and prayers) using these 'imperfect options' makes the effort of creating cyber-nections works with a price.

I am grateful to be able to do this.

3.  SUPPORT and LIFE on LIFE'S TERMS.  We are once again looking for our next safe space to live.  Our month-long oasis of a space here on Whidbey has been miraculous.  Thanks to Pete's operational skills:  this man knows how to do things ... we have successfully been in a safe place where rent is 'paid' through a percentage of cash and a larger percentage in work-trade.  Each step along the way, VardoForTwo and these two old dears with a kitty are having successes temporary though they have been, we have them to count. 

Support comes in degrees and from sources that are only as much as the source can offer.  It's not always what we hope for or need, and that's the part where we have to accept the limits and deal with them as a dealt hand and play the cards. 

We're learning more and more about life on life's terms and limits being real form and structure.  Like I know it would be great to have more time, and more freedom to keep my fingers moving on these keys/editing the blog and updating the sidebar so an Archive of The Carnival can be available for you readers and viewers.  The timer in the left-hand window ticks away, "21 minutes" and counting down.  With this mask and the stuffiness in my head today, a power greater than me is saying ... Easy Does It!  So, my spiritual progress is working if I listen to that voice inspite of my ears unable to hear much of anything from the otherside. 

Wish us good searching as we fill out applications and make connections on this island for our next successful place to be.  Gods willing the next will be a longer stay, shorter travel distance with fresh air, quiet and cooperative living arrangements abundant.

Blessed be you where ever you find yourself today,
Mokihana and Pete

Prayers for the Water EARTH DAY, April 24,2010

Today is Earth Day all around our sacred home some call "Earth" others call "Papa Honua" and still others call "Turtle Island" and more still call "Gaia."  By which name you call her, this home and the all her elements cries to be healed.  Palaoa, the great whales sing songs that mourn the pristine seas, Salmon with memory of the great migration into the sea are stopped from their traditional journey weakened by the toxic slough of Human Kind's chemicals. 

Earlier this week, Pete and I made our own historic journey in Scout the trusted Subaru (sometimes our home, and often our mode of getting keia to kela).  With fears faced, I sat in the back seat with an oxygen tank, ceramic mask and many prayers said to have my spirit guides and my belief that the risks of travel through two hours of pollens that tax my system and a large gathering within a building were risks that I was willing to take. 

The gathering as I have written in a previous post, was one of the first in the Pacific Northwest, to honor and bless the waters of Earth and in particular The Salish Sea (the waters from the south Puget Sound of Washington north to the waters along Vancouver Island in the Canadian) known to the Peoples of this continent's First People.  We did make that journey to gather at the Long House on the campus of Evergreen College along with 400 others who knew this gathering was of great import.

Oxygen in a tank allowed me to be within a building with many people for the first time in more than three years.  I used to ceramic mask that is necessary for many who have sensitivities to the plastic cannula usually used for breathing oxygen.  Regulated at a very low mixture, the oxygen gave me just the reassurance that I could breath fresh air instead of chemically fragranced or volative organic oils from Nature's storehouse.  I am grateful to say, it worked! 

Pete and our long-time friend Joan, reunited in our own celebration of renewed friendship chatting and being part of a sacred ceremony to bless the waters of Earth, and the water that is within each of us humans.  With songs, words and the inspirational photography of water crystals --the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto of Japan, a sacred Long House was filled with messages and directives.  The song A DROP OF WATER written and sung by Washington artist Dana Lyons was the invocation.  The singular and power drip of water as a drum beat and a heart beat called to each of us.  Songs for the Salt Water and the Fresh Water from The First People of The Salish Sea graced us with connection.  Words from the elders of these First People inspired us with their strength, their actions and their unwaivering commitment to maintain their birthright and their kuleana (responsibility) to maintain their traditional rights to a way of living that was unseparated from clean healing water.  Among the many powerful messages I heard, the story of one First People's leader, touched me at such a tender place.  His story linked the Creator's exquisite sense of love and compassion for Earth and the Human through the single drop of water -- the tear.  Through that duct placed in the corner of a human eye the water within makes its way back to Earth ... connected always.

Mercury in Retrograde in the sign of Taurus: an excellent time to review the meaning of HOME IN A VARDO

That's me looking through the unfinished Dutch door of our vardo to be. 

It's winter, 2008 and we are in White Center, WA

A snippet of photos from Vardo For Two string along here as a way for us to review time and place and the meaning of "home" as Vardo Folk.  Much of life is unpredictable, and though there are plans more often than not there are adjustments.  With Mercury in Retrograde from April 17th through May 11th a relook at making a home from a vardo seemed right.

while on an 'ole day walk in West Seattle ... home means so many things 

PREPARING for the Canary Caravan Carnival May 14,15,and 16th

The first MCS Blogger and Allies Carnival is coming up in a month.  Here are a few dates, astrological transits and their implications for being in the flow of things, and a deadline for crafting your submissions.

Mercury goes Retrograde on Saturday, April 17th for three weeks through Tuesday, May 11th

Sandra & David Mosey from Zodiacarts create a valuable tool of Moon Phase Calendars.  Here is what they have to say about Mercury in Retrograde.  I'll use this guidance to try to say in the flow of things as I organize this very first Carnival.  See how their insight might work in your life.

While Mercury is retrograde, familiar channels of communications become tangled and confused. Expect delays and changes in plans. Use this time for researching and problem-solving.

 This is a great time to rewrite and edit, rework an old project or successfully repeat a task. Reevaluate and reconsider, but hold final decisions and approvals until Mercury goes direct.

The tendency is to initialize or finalize projects prematurely. The contents of verbal or written contracts and plans made now may later seem inadequate or unclear. This is not a good time to buy on the spur of the moment without investigation.

This is also not a good time to purchase electronic equipment or cars. Major purchases may be reduced in price after the retrograde period and you can save money by waiting. Major repairs or surgery performed now may be incomplete or plagued by unexpected repercussions.

Double-check and reconfirm every detail. Typed or written errors are easily overlooked, paperwork mislaid, appointments forgotten. Let your sense of humor overcome the challenge of unexpected adjustments.

'Ole Cycle of the Moon of the Hawaiian Moon Calendar begins Tuesday, April 20th for 4 days through Friday, April 23rd
(Sorry for the inaccurate dates previously posted)
Attending to the energy of the Moon, Mahina, in my Hawaiian culture is a valued practice for me and Pete.  We need the guidance and structure that suggests rest or review rather than pushing forward on agendas or projects that really need to be wait.  Much like the longer cycles of Retrograde, as in Mercury's retracking, the 'Ole Cycles are mini reviews like the 10th Step in a 12 Step Program we continue to take personal inventory and when we find something to adjust, or make amends for, the opportunity is there for the taking.

No new posts on our blogs happen during the 'Ole Cycles so this post prepares our readers for our absence as we do the internal work of sorting, weeding, reconsidering, and editing what has already begun.

DEADLINE FOR CARNIVAL SUBMISSIONS:  Monday, May 10th.

So, to all you bloggers and allies who are collaborating with the Muse, and considering the story, prayer, prose, photography, activity, exercise, or whatever else that suits you keep this deadline in mind, please.

Please email me your submission on or before, MONDAY, MAY 10th.  I will assemble and organize the 3-rings of our Carnival with posts over the three days, using the flow of activity that Mercury, Mahina and life as I know it.  My email address is ssvardo@gmail.com.

Link here for the full description of the Categories for the Carnival.  Join in with your MCS related stories, successes and submit to the TAP dance that adds such diversity to our lives so often engaged in avoiDANCE.

Hope your day includes moments of joy and laughter, insight and love.  I wish that for my own dear self as well.

Mokihana

Waking

http://www.wunderground.com/

I am healing from the fall to the sidewalk just across the street from our vardo.  Two weeks, and oh so many moments and emotings.  I feel the healing take place ... where there was gut-bending pain, there is ache, the bone containing marrow now more sensitive to the cold I wrap her in a wool sock with toe cut off and soothe her.  "There, there old friend.  I care for you."

The storytellers of times long ago, not so long ago, and tellers now awake to the similar sentences that string together in my mind all come to the Waking.  I cry the tears and comfort the painful memories that show up to be acknowledged.  The old ones (memories) entwine with the present and tears make a salty bath salve.

If I could, would I be a woman who does not describe herself as 'living with a chronic condition/living with MCS?"  Probably, though the experiences are teaching the lessons of care for the self like nothing I could imagine.  "If I could be ..." is also the wonderful question and post with delightful comments on my friend Joan Tucker's blog A WILD PATIENCE. Joan lists a long and vivid sort of prayer bead poetry reminiscent of the workshop activity she encourages in her coaching life.  Joan is writing wakened poetry that infused with hope and spring-like joy after visiting her blog; just the emotions I would be "if I were an emotion."  And if I could be an element of nature ... I would be the morning dew.

Here's just a teaser of the list of "If I could be ..." .  Link to read the entire post ... you'll love it!

If I were a gem stone I’d be an emerald


If I were a tree I’d be a maple

If I were a tool I’d be a hammer

If I were a flower I’d be a lady slipper

If I were an element of weather I’d be a spring rain

If I were a musical instrument I’d be an oboe

If I were a color I'd be purple

If I were an emotion I’d be joyful

Another spring inspiration came from my DIY and wild places friend Leslie Richards author of the blog THE OKO BOX.  The inspiration Leslie shares is ongoing, as she dishes up a southern simmered kind of funniness and artistry that is Cajun at the bone, and Leslie unlike others.  Leslie has recently moved from one rural world to another.  She is newly home in her Luck Cottage ... in the town of Luck, North Carolina. 

One of her most recent posts included the fabulous photograph now our banner pic here at Vardo For Two.  "Inter-species" trees sang their songs to me when I saw them over at The Oko Box... I live that song my heart said.  So, between my very long time friend Joan and my newer and no less loving newer friend Leslie, this old gal with the sock on her arm gives THANKS, THANKS, THANKS to the kiss of spring wakenings.  Link to Leslie's post about them trees and then stay awhile to visit her blog and read how her new Luck Cottage is becoming home to the Cajun Elfess.

Akin to the Beaver

American Indians called the beaver the "sacred center" of the land because this species creates rich habitats for other mammals, fish, turtles, frogs, birds and ducks. Since beavers prefer to dam streams in shallow valleys, much of the flooded area becomes wetlands. Such wetlands are cradles of life with biodiversity that can rival tropical rain forests. Almost half of endangered and threatened species in North America rely upon wetlands.

Besides being a keystone species, beavers reliably and economically maintain wetlands that can sponge up floodwaters (the several dams built by each colony also slows the flow of floodwaters), prevent erosion, raise the water table and act as the "earth's kidneys" to purify water. The latter occurs because several feet of silt collect upstream of older beaver dams, and toxics, such as pesticides, are broken down in the wetlands that beavers create. Thus, water downstream of dams is cleaner and requires less treatment.

http://www.beaversww.org/beaver.html

From the comfort of the vardo, still wrapped in the quiet of night sleep, I heard the song of birds.  Small voices they did find their way to me inspite of the very manicured and humanly residential nature of the Mill Town.  On my feet I pulled the soft worn flannel curtains away from the windows, inspecting them for the moisture that collects after a night of being sealed against the sulfur of pollens and kiln from the mills.  Almost as a sleep-walker I wiped the moisture from the windows to keep mold from forming on the milk-painted oak frames.  Making up the bed waits for a time later this morning.

With my robe tucked about me and slipped into my boots and down the three short steps from our sleeping loft and onto the sidewalk.  There they were, a family of tiny sparrows looked from the roof ledge.  We talked a bit and I was happy to feel a smile gently taking over my sleepy face.  Inside, Pete had already been at this computer printing out insurance forms for his new business in the making...the legal trappings of becoming a small biz owner.  "I saw the sparrows on the roof...heard them chirping, too."  Busy with his focus, he said, "I don't feel connected to the outside."  Oh, I thought what a price to pay for beavering away.