ONE MALAMA PAU: What the body knows and how that changes

How much of what the contemporary naturalist claims to know about animals and the ecosystems they share with humans derives from what he has read, what he has heard, what he has seen televised? What part of what the naturalist has sworn his or her life to comes from firsthand experience, from what the body knows?


One of the reasons native people still living in some sort of close, daily association with their ancestral lands are so fascinating to those who arrive from the rural, urban, and suburban districts of civilization is because they are so possessed of authority. They radiate the authority of firsthand encounters. They are storehouses of it. They have not read about it, they have not compiled notebooks and assembled documentary photographs. It is so important that they remember it. When you ask them for specifics, the depth of what they can offer is scary. It’s scary because it’s not tidy, it doesn’t lend itself to summation. By the very way that they say that they know, they suggest they are still learning something that cannot, in the end, be known

... Barry Lopez, "The Naturalist"  from Orion Magazine

By which ever calendar you choose to keep time/track the moon, time has passed.  We have learned so much in this Malama closing.  The lines I've embolded above, Barry Lopez' words "... they suggest they are still learning something that cannot, in the end, be known" are a wonderful way to plop this dear old body down.  There is so much to learn, and maybe, even more to unlearn.  Perhaps, in this lifetime I will know something more.

Through the infusion of Aries energy in April, new beginnings and activity began here.  In your life, the new beginnings have taken you somewhere.  Pete and I have loved the discoveries and new relationship with Mahina.  What began because we were felt with a'ole (nothing) has filled with plenty. 

Reexamining the history and traditions of Kanaka and especially the Kaulana Mahina shows me I am indeed challenged or asked to tune to the water within:  the intuitive nature of my self.  "Go with the flow" is the talisman.  Today/tonight is Mauli, where barely an illumination appears in the night sky.  Tomorrow, Sunday, May 1st we begin a new workshop "Malama I Ka `Aina".  THIS ONE will remain accessible for all of you.  So, know this workshop "Count On The Moon" is a place where you can sit and be with mahina and the thoughts expressed:  once you have 'bought your ticket ' (paid for the workshop)  it's yours.  Mahalo!

COUNT ON THE MOON:  "The Blessings of the 'Ole Moons" is a foundational workshop that paved a way, and will be adjusted and honed with time and new discoveries.  We don't know what those adjustments are, the future is not my kuleana in some respects.  We love that you have jumped in the play and learn along with us.  There is great love here, and room for asking questions that may or may not have clear answers. 

Enjoy this final 'oli with beautiful children COUNTING THE MOON.

Mahalo nui loa kakou,
Mokihana and Pete

MAKUA O'O



Ha Kupuna ... exchanging the 'breath of life' between kupuna (elder)  and keiki (child)

  Makua o'o

Definition:  maturing adult; elder in training

Mahalo nui loa to Aunty Betty Kawohiolani Jenkins for nuturing and guiding me in the practice of the makua o'o; for passing to me the tools she learned from her kupuna

A story

Our faithful Subaru has logged thousands of miles since we picked her out in that Hilo car dealership lot in 2004.  Pete likes to tell the story, "Well, the odometer reads 80,000 but really she's got an additional x-thousand miles."  People look at him with that look, that sometimes jaw-dropped crease between the eyebrows, cock of the head, "Hah?"  "The odometer doesn't record the three ocean crossings between islands and between O'ahu and Washington since 2004."  "Oh," most people say with some degree of understanding.  We have criss-crossed the Pacific Ocean many times.  Between us there have been more than a dozen trips on air wa'a, not canoe.  When I arrived in Honolulu in 1994, I was home again after more than twenty-three years.  Life had changed and I was back to lick my wounds and begin again.  Ma and Dad had  passed into spirit, the old homestead was rented out, but the neighbor and old friend next door had a place for me.  I began healing there, and soon after Pete made the crossing from Wisconsion and joined me in Kuliouou Valley.
We would soon pack up and travel to Maui where we began our life together as a couple.  We lived and worked together in the hotel industry -- a new place for both of us, I worked as the hotel's training and Hawaiian culture wahine and Pete did the fix 'ems in the engineering department.  We had a lot of fun, made wonderful new friends and got to know one another.  Among the friends I met was a gracious kupuna (elder) named Aunty Betty Jenkins.  While I began creating the programs for Hawaiian Culture Education I brought with me that POI BOWL, my mother's bowl.  I knew I wanted to share the mana'o (the teachings) with the workers at the hotel, and knew also that I needed to ask permission to share.  My prayer was answered when Aunty Betty showed up for a Kupuna Workshop at the hotel.  I introduced myself, and we began to talkstory.  She was sharing Poi Bowl in the work she did, and was thrilled to hear my story of wanting to involve the traditions and in her permission-giving Aunty Betty also introduced me to the practices of Makua O'o ... a practice her momma had shared with her.  "No one else seems very interested, Mokihana.  You are, so you must be the one."

The practice of Makua O'o has become my foundational tool.  I live with them, write about them in columns, talk about them in story, share them on a blog and when I learn something new, like now, I pass them along with the workshop COUNT ON THE MOON.  The tools are basic life skill that can be used over time and with maturation the uses for them changes, and integrate.  We all have life crossings, criss-crossing and times of 'ole that seem at times to last too long. Offered here, you may see how useful they can be as you begin a new cyle of thirty days.  As Mahina begins her water-effecting movement the water within you may attract the o'o ... the maturing tool into your hand, into your everyday.  They are useful and adaptable o'o, see how they fit for your life and your Kuleana (area of responsibility).

The BASIC LIFE TOOLS Of Makua O'o

Keep a keen sense of observation … NOTICE

Listen … with your whole body … LISTEN RESPECTFULLY

Do your best in all things … BELIEVE YOUR BEST IS ENOUGH.

Know that wisdom is found in many places … SOFTEN THE GROUND OF YOUR BEING

Question for clarity when making decisions … ASK

Practice patience and endurance … TIMING IS DIVINE

Engage in good health practices … CARE

Feel the heartbeat of the culture … SENSE YOUR PLACE

Believe in Ke Akua, for this higher power makes all life possible … WE ARE NEVER ALONE

Copy and Print, or Cut and Paste this list of o'o for yourself. 

Let us know how you use it over time.  



We suggest that over the next week, and as you consider digest and be with the mana'o of the workshop thus far, lay out these o'o and review/meditate upon their meaning for you. 

How do these tools speak to you/your present life?  

During the 'Ole Moons coming in the next seven days-nights there will be time to do nothing/rest-nap/restore, replay Kumu John Keola Lake's 'oli E HO MAI daily, pray with him and feel the heartbeat of the Source.

This is the last new content session for this part of the Count On The Moon Workshop "'Ole Mahalo".  The sidebar of this blog will fill with Resources to further your study of the Kanaka.  Explore them. 

Your comments, questions and thoughts will fuel the future posts.  We look forward to that unfolding.  New content already prepared will show up periodically over the month, but the 'Ole Moons will be times of no new content.  We hope there is something here that nourishes you.  We mahalo all of you, and embrace your beauty and your courage, and look forward to more.  Let us know how we might serve your needs during the month, and take good care all the while.

A hui hou,

Mokihana and Pete

Photo Credit and Link:  The photograph above is taken from the site HA KUPUNA a program created at the University of Manoa on the island of O'ahu.  It's purpose and goals focus on the needs of the Hawaiian Kupuna Elders. 

A PREVIEW: Why Count on the Moon?

Morning has come to the forest here on the island.  Already the stars that lit the sky earlier mute against the sun's early morning strength.  Pete is still asleep, an unusual thing for him.  'Ole Pau is just passed and I have weeded through my personal garden:  my attitudes, my feelings, and the projects already in process.  I feel the doubt rise up ... an old attitude of fear, I notice the shift in my emotions-feelings from confidence to uncertainty again.  Patience shows up and surrounds me.  I quiet again and sit with it.  Why do this, Yvonne Mokihana?  Why go back there and try to translate something that might not interest any other?  Today is a new rest of my life ... the 'Ole is over(pau).  What good comes from it?

I think and image the sticks, the o'o of the makua (the maturing adult on her way to wisdom) and lay them out ...

And I pray ...

 What are the basic life tools of Makua O`o?

1. Keep a keen sense of observation … NOTICE  My purpose for doing this venture came as a thought not borne from me.  I remember the conversation.  "Akua, you want me to do what?  Again." 
2. Listen … with your whole body … LISTEN RESPECTFULLY I listened to the idea of creating a new translation of traditional practices and felt my body reminding me how regular restful times allowed me to feel in the vicinity of ease during the 'Ole Moons.  Doing nothing, all was done. 
3. Do your best in all things … BELIEVE YOUR BEST IS ENOUGH When I allow myself the rest it needs, I allow me and myself to be in the same place at the same time.  For awhile, doing nothing new is exactly what is called for.  Like the ocean when fisher folk refrain from harvesting it, like the ground allowed to rest I am in sync.  Whatever I do, I know I'll do my best, and that will be enough.  I feel that wobble, but choose another feeling ... a slightly better feeling.  Okay
4. Know that wisdom is found in many places … SOFTEN THE GROUND OF YOUR BEING The prayers done on this day, this moon are particularly sweet to the akua Kanaloa and Kaloa they are the gods who tend to the nourishment of foods planted on the 'aina (the earth).  My time with the chanting softens my grip on DOING, I simplify and rest, soften my hold on outcomes and what is essential is.
5. Question for clarity when making decisions … ASK "E Ho Mai" is a chant of asking.  I ask for the wisdom from the Source, breathe with the chant and wait.
6. Practice patience and endurance … TIMING IS DIVINE I think ... it is what the mind does.  I feel the space between fear and friskiness widen and patience fills in again.  I was born to create and have become better and better at writing.  Akua is in charge of timing and outcomes are not my province. 
7. Engage in good health practices … CARE Taking care of myself is my job.  Resting and observing the 'Ole times is one way I stop the pace of doing and fix my gear, weed my personal garden.  I do it for me, and the effects ripple out.  It's not my job to convince others to do-nothing or do nothing new, on the 'Ole times.  This is one possibility.  It might work for those who are attracted to this tradition.  Why not believe that.
8. Feel the heartbeat of the culture … SENSE YOUR PLACE  When I rest even for a few seconds it's easier to sense my place.  Quieted for a moment, or a few minutes, the regularity of the moon which moves through the sky, through the points of energy we call the constellations or the signs of the zodiac ... the moon changes signs every two and a half Earth days.  I'm a changeable being too.  Still, I am allowed to change.  Change is
9. Believe in Ke Akua, for this higher power makes all life possible … WE ARE NEVER ALONE This is the comfort that I felt, the comfort Pete and I began to truly feel during the months and years that have led to this moment.  While on the way here to this place in the forest, on THIS island, not that island where the traditions of Kaulana Mahina were assembled and practiced we felt and learned the connectedness of all possibility.  We were WITHOUT home, health, possessions, previously-held beliefs of comfort.  But, we were never alone during those 'Ole times.  And this is what fuels me to create this workshop.  This is why I do it. 'Ole passes and then there is more.

Count On The Moon is an experiment in bridge-building and criss-crossing oceans of culture.  Begun on a New Moon, a moon of new beginnings, in the sign of Aries all here on the Planet will feel the culture change.  Kaulana Mahina has been a long-sustaining, proven worthy over time practice.  We share our experiences with it and offer this as a worthy vessel for criss-crossing culture.

If this preview feels good to you, jump in.

Aloha,
Mokihana and Pete

Count On The Moon On-line Workshop starts next Sunday, April at 3rd at 11:00 AM Pacific Time.  To register for this 'invitation only' blog-workshop email us at ssvardoATgmailDOTcom.

• The blog-workshop is accesible and open throughout the month of April.  Comments and dialogue can be made at anytime during the month. 
• New content and sessions/posts will be published at intervals during the month -- some will be based on the conversations and questions; other posts will be scheduled and attuned to the Anahulu (week of the month) giving participants to ponder or be inspired.
• Cost:  $20 for the month-long workshop

This PREVIEW is open to all for reading until Saturday, April 2 and then this blog will be a private one.  Please leave a comment or question on this post if you wish, we welcome you.