The journey was not easy ...

 "The journey was not easy. Very few journeys are, Sophie thought, and they are made even more difficult when you are planning to skip a  country illegally in broad daylight.

"'Pack light," said Charles. "If we are seen leaving, we must  look like we're  going to the dentist."

"The dentist/ We never go to the dentist."

"To a concert, then. One bag and nothing else." - Chapter 6 of The Rooftoppers, by Katherine Rundell

If you are new to my writing, and the many blogs I've created, welcome first of all and I suppose it is only fair for you to know 'the journey' began decades ago when I began believing in what the characters Sophie and Charles call 'the possible.' Let the characters  speak for  themselves; I quote  a  bit more from The Rooftoppers, by Katherine Rundnell:

"Almost impossible means still possible." Sophie tried to stand up straight and sound adult; people  believed you more easily if you were  taller. "you always say, 'Never ignore a possible."

Christopher Kawika and Carter Lanakila: the overflowing bundle of 'the good stuff.' And the image I cropped and use in the background to Na'u ka hau'oli. 

 

One of the joys I get from blogging is the ferreting out of meaning and images from real and sometimes limiting experience to connect with imagined realities -- fantasy, myth and stories -- that are not my own, but could be if I squint, or if I held disconnected parts together with pins. So many stories have begun because of pins. Dozens, and a  decade of blogs began with safety pins. I owe a  great gift of gratitude to safety pins. 

But now, it is time to unfasten them to make room for the rest of the story.

It's a  partly sunny day, a good one to clean. The truck is the target for today; and we did good! Pete's still at it, now into the tools. I've been through 'my' boxes of blankets, rugs, books, old photos, and old clothes that will not make it into the scrap bag or into one more wash. 

To unfasten safety pins you have to let stuff go.

I'm writing during one of the four full moons. "Technically" Mahina is full overnight Friday, and into Saturday where we are on the west coast of the U.S. My favorite astrologer has a whole boatload to say about this week. One of the things Satori wrote about is service.

"There is one thing to consider, in light of all that’s popping this week. How much service is expected of us, and how much serving do we need to do to satisfy ourselves? How much is too much and how much is enough? Some expectations and some situations can qualify as abuse. That’s not to say it’s conscious, but that doesn’t change its effect"

This journey of mine that has not been easy, has been filled with serving and caring for our needs. Life in an eighty square foot space requires lots of service. The wagon is part of a web of connections to the outside. What most people take for granted: like a sink that turns on, a toilet that flushes and goes somewhere without being carried in a bucket. 

Much of the doing has been Pete's. The things I do are less physical and less visible. Over the decade plus that we have been living this life, "some expectations and some situations can qualify as abuse" Like Satori suggests, even if it's not conscious the effect is the same.

We need to make some major changes. Old people taking care of each other is a game changing "possible." We're not sure what that will mean, exactly. But the safety pins are undone and we've got some leg shaking and tap dancing to do to find a different sort of satisfaction.

It's not all harsh drama, though it is hard. Enjoy a couple videos from the very young, 6 year old Johanna channeling Aretha and the old clip from the movie "Tap", to add some humor, inspire a bit of leg tapping and enfold the sense of overflowing goodness. 

Life does overflow.

Other places to catch a few stories

If you have not read the last posts written over here, at (newly renamed) UNfasten Your Safety Pins, they might fill you in on the lead up and backstory to unfastening the safety pins.

Link here to find out more about the amazing storyteller, Katherine Rundell. I am in love with her prose, the characters in all her books are people as brave, quirky and courageous as love in all its murmurations. And if that weren't enough, Katherine Rundell feeds my head and my heart the verbs of all the different versions of being she (my heart) had forgotten were 'the possible.'

 

Or as she wrote in her book Wolf Wilder, " Wolves, like children, are not meant to lead calm lives." Katherine Rundell writes books for young readers. Thankfully no one's carding me when I reach for my Rundells and my heart flutters and turns cartwheels. Rather than fear the flutters there are other ways to frame the experience; I ferret those other ways out to find the possibles.

And for a dose of astrological overflow? Elsa Panizzon reposted an article "Jupiter, Perspective & Happiness" that gave me such a lift to my journey. Elsa wrote:

"I’m inherently happy. It doesn’t matter if life is grueling, I am still happy and feel satisfied at least 80% of time. I chalk this up to trines from Jupiter.

"Jupiter types have a very hard time staying down. We just go up like a helium balloon, again and again and again. Pull it down, it comes down. Turn your back and its up again. Shoot it full of holes and next morning it’s restored. It’s right back where it was, wagging in the wind..."

I left a comment on her post. She made me see how Jupiter has brought the happy into my life again and again. Go here if you'd like to encourage the laugh factor. 

Na'u ka hau'oli! And if you're moved to TIP? That's still a wonderful, workable and old-fashion way to overflow. Click here to make that happen.

Mokihana 

 

CHECK OUT THE NEW NEWSLETTER for March 26, 27, 28, 29 ('member we Kanaka see four full moons in our calendar) " Returning to the pond"