Mo'o hihia on a Hoaka Moon

When I was a little girl my Aunty Lily showed me how to notice clouds. I have never stopped noticing. The sky and the clouds changed in a matter of minutes yesterday before sunset. Hoaka Moon.

Mo'o. lizard, reptile of any kind, dragon, serpent; water spirit

Mo'o hihia. series of difficulties, troubles

- Hawaiian Dictionary, Pukui & Elbert

I noticed the lizard skin, mottled or perhaps breaking apart like the shedding of skin too small to contain the mo'o growing. As I watched I searched for the 'ike papalua the insight. The loss and grief, the difficulties and challenges. E ho mai i ka 'ike papalua. On the shoulders and backbone of my ancestors, and the gift given me as a little girl in Kuli'ou'ou Valley. The ao mo'o ... the clouds of the water spirit remind me to notice and listen with my whole body.

E Mauli Moon ma ke kai a ma uka (from ocean to upland)

The raspberries are coming ripe in the orchard in the woods (ma uka).
 The temperatures are summer-time warm. Cool breezes caress.

The canes are tall, and ever growing. Pete is over 6 feet tall for comparison.

Just before dusk we sit on the bench in the woods to remember our old friend Jots. 

E ‘elekule (click to read the Mele Inoa (name chant) for Jots)

nou e koʻu hoaloha

At noon, on my way north to visit our haumana the sky was showing me the meaning ... 'ai ... eat the mana.

The tide was very low at noon. Dried kelp unanchored on the shore.

From the land sloping into the water off of Penn Cove, the place I went to visit

A woman's herb grows strong and abundant 

Kaloa ao (Kaloa po clouds)

 "How's the weather up there?" It was my nephew Kawika emailing me. "Sunny!" I wrote back, and sent him a photo of mahina in the sky at nearly awakea. Today, at that same near awakea, the sky is moving with long stretch of ao ...

 Over to the left where I am standing, the streaks stretch. The wind must be playing. (That's my bruddah, David!)

Below, on the ground the gentle, and cool breeze moves the fingers of the ferns very slowly. A fan moving the air. Malia. The temperature is cool, the sun is bright. I feel the cool touch of wind on my bare calves and feet.