Juice from Oranges and Tangerines in our Yard

There's something about squeezing citrus from trees in your own yard that is so - I can't even find the right word. Yes, it's cool, but it feeds me creatively. That act somehow belongs on this blog. I took from things in my environment and I made something of it. It's delicious too. So, the word is --- juicy! 

Hanging Laundry

Sometimes

It'll come

Hanging laundry in the closet.

You don't know 

If it will be a paragraph, 

Or a poem,

But you want to do something

With that thought

So you stop 

Hanging laundry

And write down that thought.

Sometimes 

That thought

Connects onto other thoughts

Like weaving

Sometimes it just hangs

Like a piece of thread,

Going nowhere.

But I have learned  

To honor that impulse

To see it a as a gift.

It has no agenda

It is not part of a five year plan

Or achieving a goal.

The impulse 

Is like a nudge 

From your higher self

Or something like that

If your intent is to be

Who you truly are

Let these impulses guide you. 

Philanthropy: Kind of

Philanthropy, kind of

(Reflection after Buying Books on Amazon)

If I had all the money in the world,

Then no one but me would have money,

So I better not say that. 

But if I had lots of money,

I would be a philanthropist

And I would give money to 

Budding and struggling

Artists,

Poets,

Writers,

Inventors,

Filmmakers,

Musicians, 

Storytellers of all kinds

For creative work

Contributing to a beautiful world,

Nurturing the planet

Like comfort food,

And gardens.

I do that now

I look at it as contributing to the economy

Or supporting the arts

When I spend my money 

On what would seem to be 

Non-essential 

By some. 

But it is essential

Not in the food, clothing, shelter

Scheme of things

But in the quality of life

Scheme of things

In the co-creation of a world

Worth living in

A world in which creativity

And doing good 

Is valued as much as 

Or more than

Money making

And simple pleasure-seeking

When I go to a book store,

Physical or online, 

Or iTunes,

Or participate 

In crowd-funding campaigns,

Or go to a farmer's market

Or craft fair, 

I spend my money based on

What or who I want to support 

In a world I want to co-create. 

It's a small way of making a mark 

In the world

On a teacher's salary.

So I would like to have more money

To be more of philanthropist

To support those 

Who are dedicated to their 

Creative impulses, 

And yes, 

Making the world a better place,

Whose creative 

And do-good impulses,

Whose seeds and sprouts,

I want to see blossom,

Bloom,

Grow,

Live.

On Borrowing a Book on Hand Lettering at my Neighborhood Library

The purpose of libraries

besides the borrowing of books 

Free

and thus the spreading of knowledge

is to define identity

Who you are

Who I am

I wander

through the stacks

with no agenda

no author or subject in mind

nothing specific to find

I look

I read spines

Hearing titles

Listening

for a book to call to me

Several do.

Grant-writing

Working your way around the world

How to train your brain

And then

The Art and Craft of Hand Lettering

I reach,

I touch,

I pull it off the shelf,

I am mesmerized.

I sit with it

awhile

on the floor

and then put it back

but then it calls again

it tells me

I know you may not have time to read me

or do the projects entailed in here

But you can take me home

to take up  a small bit of space 

in your life

I will inspire you

even if you never open me up again

you will know that

I am a part of you

because you heard me,

You listened to me,

You chose me.

What Would Queen Liliuokalani Do?

       If you call Hawaii your home, eventually you have to deal with the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom. You can choose to ignore it, and that is one sort of reaction, you can choose to make a stand politically, or you can live somewhere in the uncertain in-between and try to articulate a position, which is what I am going to try to do now .

The Hawaii State Library is touring a program called "He Lei, He Aloha: This is a lei of Love, the Legacies of Queen Lili'uokalani," in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Hawaii State Library. This is an interactive event; some participants are given significant sections of the Queen's autobiography to read. A few of her songs are also sung. After the readings, there is a discussion, with a volunteer from the I'olani Guild, Uncle Fred, facilitating and  asking us to talk story and share our responses to the work.  

How agonizing it must have been for the Queen to abdicate. But she did so to save the 40,000 Hawaiians who had thus far survived decimating diseases, and also because she believed that the U.S. Government would intervene eventually. After all, the British government undid the British occupation decades earlier when a renegade captain had claimed Hawaii for his country. 

It occurred to me that it must have been depressing for the Queen to realize that the US would not intervene, that the US Congress and President allowed the overthrow to be sustained which led to annexation and eventually current statehood. I asked how she was able to cope with this - the loss of the kingdom, the injustice of it all. Uncle Fred responded that the answer can be found in the Queen's prayer, which she wrote when she was imprisoned under house arrest in I'olani palace. Uncle sang a verse of it, some of us sang with him:

'O kou aloha nô

Aia i ka lani

A `o Kou `oia `i`o

He hemolelo ho`i

 

And he explained, emotionally, solemnly, that it was about forgiveness and having aloha, and once you lose that, once you don't have aloha, you are lost. In the beloved song, she referred to "truth" of "the heavens" as a way of coming to peace with "malevolence" and the "sins of man."

There was nothing pono about the overthrow. There is no way that one can justify it except in terms of power, money, arrogance, capitalism, colonialism, racism, greed. Nothing pono about that. There are those who believe that sovereignty is the only pono solution. There are those who say that having too much aloha has hurt the Hawaiians. 

In the end, though the days of outright colonialism are over, we still live in a world of meanness, injustice, dishonesty, and greed. It is so much to wrap your head around. It is hard to be all peace, love, and harmony, when there is so much to be angry about. So we all have to be like the Queen in dealing with it. Sometimes the result will not be what you thought or hoped it would be, but if you can hold the ugly truth in your brain, speak the ugly truth when you are given opportunities to, and still be beautiful in your aloha for all, then maybe maybe maybe, there will be a just reaping of what you sowed at some point. But if nothing else, you brought grace, beauty, and aloha to those who you encountered. And that is a magnificent legacy. 

       The last part of the program was read together by all of us: 

"I could not turn back the time for the political change, but there is still time to save our heritage. You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail. The way to lose any earthly kingdom is to be inflexible, intolerant, and prejudicial. Another way is to be too flexible, tolerant of too many wrongs and without judgment at all. It is a razor's edge. It is a width of a pili grass. To gain the kingdom of heaven is to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, and to know the unknowable - that is Aloha. All things in this world are two; in heaven, there is but One." 

Salad Experiments

Making salads can be a creative act too. 

Try different ingredients. I found this root at the Greenwell farmers market that looks like a potato but tastes like a pear, though not as sweet. I bought different kinds of sprouts at Choice Mart (azuki, lentil, pea, snow peas) and thought I'd use Kim Chee shrimp poke for the protein. Need to work on the dressing, a creative act for another time. 

The Story of the 2013 Christmas Wreath

Making our Christmas wreath a few weeks ago was one of the reasons I flowed into starting this blog. We did not get a tree this year. Our immediate family is spread from Guam to Colorado and no one was coming home. Putting up a tree, as well as putting it away, takes a lot of energy that we were not motivated to expend. I was feeling guilty, like it was something I was supposed to do. All good people decorate for Christmas right? 

I have a cousin in Hilo who makes beautiful Hawaiian wreaths every year. She and her husband get their permit to pick from the ohi'a forests and it is their tradition to make these wreaths for their family and friends. We went to visit my aunties in Hilo the weekend before Christmas and I was inspired by the wreath that my cousin had made for her mom. So I came home determined to make one this year. I was lucky to have spent a weekend with my cousin one year when they were making wreaths and learned how to do it back then, must have been five years ago or more. I haven't made one in a long time.

The plan was to use materials from our yard, get a wreath ring and pins and just do it. I looked online for directions to refresh my memory, and went to Ace to look for the wreath ring and pins. They had stacks of the rings and no pins. The worker there said they ran out and did not think there were any in Kona anywhere. She suggested I use bobby pins. I did go around looking at other stores. My last stop was Home Depot, and the sales person there told me that she had made a wreath a different way. "I wen haku em." I knew how to make a haku lei, though I also had not made one in a long time. But I did decide that was what I was going to do.

From my yard, I picked eucalyptus branches, bay laurel leaves, white bougainvillea, and a bush that had red berries and reddish leaves. I set up my work area on our cool, open, back patio. And I just wen haku em. 

         For those who do not know what I mean, you make little bundles on top of each other and use raffia to hold the bundle together and to wind the bundles to each other. Next time I make one, I'll take pictures of the process.

It took me a while to figure out how to make it work and I wanted to give up about a quarter of a way through. But I talked myself through it, telling myself that it was holding together, it was growing. I just needed to keep adding to it and persevere. So I listened to myself giving myself encouragement, and I completed it. My mom gave me a nice compliment, but I thought she was just being my mom. When I posted it on Facebook, I got many likes and comments, which validated my efforts and made me proud to have done it.

What does this say about creativity? Sometimes Christmas can be depressing when there are no kids around. Is Christmas really just for kids? For adults, Christmas can be more focused on the reason for the season, which is, of course, the birth of Christ. Creative acts are like giving birth, which is cause to celebrate. Celebrations of Births, especially of the Christ child, is extremely rejuvenating and a wonderful state of mind to have occupying your thoughts at the end of one year and the beginning of another.