oly slice

back in the flow of things, returning with a freshness...
I am together again with Rae and we have moved into a new place in west oly, smack dab between the nut house and the co-op, living with a couple and their young children. the land / 'property' borders a ravine that feeds snyder creek, and yesterday with our friend stefan and a couple opportunistic dogs, hiked, climbed and crawled our way down in search of some clay to make a cob bread oven. we got drenched in the first real rains in over a month and made it back up the steep ivy enlaced cliff face each with a bucket of clay. ...
I've been pretty busy my first couple weeks back, picking up work with previous employers , doing gardening and landscape type labor... I've been avidly trying to learn more and more about plants, save seed, learn to bud & graft, practice propigating by cuttings. Working with plant-human systems continues to be a tributary of my path that's flowing more and more deeply as its fed by runoff and springs...
I have indeed made the choice to be in Olympia again. I love it here, day after day being greeted by dear friends old and new...

home to cascadia

Here I am, returning to a warm, beautiful summer already in progress.
The sunset looking down on puget sound from w.seattle hill was divine, more spectacular than any I saw in hawaii... vashon, blake, bainbridge in the foreground, with kitsap rising above them and the contour line of the olympic mts. ridge as the backdrop. the sky on fire. I walked down to lincoln park with my brother, got blasted by ecstatic, cool breezes, smelled the bodies of algae, greeted the trees, and touched the cold tumbling waves.

I've been super inspired to continuously learn about plants and their stories. where they evolved, how they traveled and propigated and grew. infinite histories to unravel, and millions of seeds. even in this cement smothered city that was once forests and marshes, the root systems of trees form a web in the subsoil, holding it together, keeping it real. What a beautiful plant you are, I say. what do you feed on? hows the sex? or the cloning? where have you come from? where are you going? I will be seeding plant nurseries and supporting garden development at my parents homes and wherever else I can.

I managed to catch a cold in honolulu (I was only there for 30 hours, but I guess I let my immune system get kind of low). It's a bit of a challenge to have set myself up for a quick transition--I'm headed to portland for the village building convergence tomorrow, an exciting event with many participatory activities, and managing the impending excitement of seeing many friends for the first time in quite a while, while needing to rest, take it easy, not 'party', per se. I managed to keep the colds away the entire time I was on the big island, so perhaps its time for my body's lymph system to have some stimulation... I look forward to seeing all my friends relatively soon. I'll probably be totally well by the time I return from portland, june 13 or 14...

more later, as I continue to integrate my hawaii experiences...

homeward bound

so I'm at the point of saying goodbyes, to people and places and the feel of the humid blasts of wind amidst heat that bakes me in the ovens of jungle*.  (*new band name)  I'm rocking and bouncing in excitement and anticipation of the change that will soon follow its course of overtaking me.  this river carries me into the air over the big sea to the really big island, to Oly, the inland sea, Cascadia.   I will miss many people that I've met here and already I speak words of returning next year.  how can we not want this?  How can we come to know a place and its live inhabitants and not wish to return to at least catch a moment of each of their dances, their transformations, their eternal sameness?  

attempts to grasp feelings and pervasive questions aside...

I yesterday spent the afternoon hanging out in the waters of the warm pool (like a natural swimming pool, where the cold ocean surf cools volcano heated waters, the temperature in flux with the tide) with a family of 4 kids and 2 adults, swimming, dancing and playing, being blissed out, and loving the energies of peace and children and play.  I've really enjoyed having children around me, being able to connect with their enthusiasm, spontaneity and glow.  

I had a great time with my brother.  Our rhythms finally began to coincide on the last 2 days, while we camped in south kona at ho'okena beach and did a kayak & snorkel excursion in kealakekua bay with dolphins, reef and fish.  very relaxing and awe inspiring.

its time to proceed with the adventure: to ecstatic dance, the ocean then to a hilo hostel for my last night on the island (i'll spend tomorrow day and night on oahu, my birthplace)

aloha

hasta pronto

I

hot sun, brotherly love, snorkeling, etc

I'm in the midst of a loop around the big island with my brother Adam, who is enjoying his first experience in the tropics. We are camped at Volcano nat'l park and we've seen the lava light.
We're on different rhythms and lifestyle patterns...he reminds me that he doesn't find clothing the appropriate medium to wipe food off his hands and that the ground isn't the most comfortable place to sleep. he sleeps more and doesn't eat as much. but we both enjoy eating plenty of mangoes and swimming in translucent turquoise waters, and discovering the delights of snorkeling amongst coral reef with neon a.o rainbow hued fish and big green turtles. We had an awesome campfire at Pololu valley a couple nights ago, speaking the truth that fire pulls out, and telling a story in turns that became to be about a post-apocalyptic city whose one fire is threatened by double-elbowed mutant Yetis whose body temp.s are 37.5 deg. F...until a Hero/gyro from the planet Grafylrgyhl saves the day (though man becomes dogs best friend in the process) by transmutating into a loafy exosteleton, lambs wings & other accoutrements to clad/arm a young girl....

we also flew through albezia forests of n. kohala on a zip line course (thanks to a gift from our mother). this was pretty outrageously fun and beautiful (some of them cruised us over huge ravines and waterfalls)... it seemed like a good way to learn about plants and ecology in tidbits , the guides were knowledgeable and fun to talk to and hang out with... combined with the contemporary call for stimulation / thrill.

Pololu valley reminded us of the wash/oregon coast, with its epic rocks cliffs draped in greenery, rock beach, followed by sandy beach, pounded / washed by big waves. body surfing and hiking, locals net fishing in the surf (for a fish called moi).

the beaches of south kohala abounded in sun, sand and coral reef/rock regions. I had no idea what lay just below the surface only about 20 feet from our campsite. moundy corals, califlowery, pointy starry ones.

in puna, we snorkeled in tide pools that largely covered black lava (that was liquid only 30 -40 years ago). here we saw long skinny fish, yellow and black striped ones, rainbow painted trout looking crtters with grey eyes and yellow-magenta ones with neon blue lips. one day, my father says, we shall snorkel together and he can help elucidate the identities that these fish bear to us humans. or my sister too. here adam and I are, delighted and mystified by the oceans depths (shallows, that is) without even the marine biologist wizards to guide / teach us. ..! can't complain.

I had a lovely time at the 1st birthday party of the youngest La'akean, Ai'ala. She is an exuberant little girl who is just taking her first unaided steps and I got to dance and walk around with her while a couple of awesome marimba bands played. they cooked a sheep in an imu pit and planted a surinam cherry tree in a ceremory, each contributing a wish to her with a shovelful of soil. (I missed this part, but still had a great time).

today, I'm meeting up with my friend Morgan to hang out with him and do a little work on his land (he just came by the same internet cafe I'm at now-we always seem to run into each other...,), while Adam sleeps in and hangs out in beautiful native ohia forest by the kiluaea caldera (now a huge crater, though when mark twain came to visit it in th 1870s it was a vast vat of bright bright infernally hot lava)...
I'll meet back up with him this afternoon and we'll do some hiking, camp there again tonight, and then tomorrow head off around the south point of the island to south kona for our last two night here together, camping at Ho'okena beach and visiting the famous snorkeling spots near captain cook.

and, almost difficult to fathom, I'm actually returning home in 8 days!

almost there.

here.

love

jeremy

zip zap zop

What an incredible growing and learning experience this has been!
I have felt so supported and held by the La'akea community and the greater puna community. this land is a place of synchroniticies, magic and raw life.

I have spent a couple of very charged and fun days with my friends from cascadia, Bleu and Xyoa who I had no idea would be on the island (we ran into each other at the ecstatic dance..!). I continue to meet people that know people I know and realize how much people on similar paths are drawn to one another, that tribal families are forming... how much I can trust in being loved for who I am, to see that my life is coming together just the way it needs to, feeling alive and inspired, surrounded by elders that are engaging, spontaneous, passionate and energized...

It is pouring, pouring, pouring. It's ten seconds till saturation rain. at least its 74 degrees F...

My brother comes tomorrow. He'll be flying into the near desert region, which receives 10-12 inches of annual rainful (literally less than 10 % of what we receive here... I've begun to think of this land of a home of sorts. perhaps a january february home...)


some tidbits of recent days...

I was supported in having my first chicken killing experience. It was good for me, to spend a few moments with the bird, a big, beautiful orange rooster, thank him. After catching him, I hung him upside down until he stopped panicking. He came to a peaceful state of abandon and died quickly. Then I plucked out his feathers, saved some of the soft down and long elaborate tails feathers. Gutted and cleaned him and made him into a soup with spices from the land: lemongrass, ginger, coconut milk, oranges...and peach palm, a starchy orange palm fruit with a hearty carotenoid flavor. Overall, it was the most involved I've been in the process of eating meat, and I felt thankful for the life given (although initially unwillingly), and that he had lived a totally free ranging life, foraging, eating delicious compost scraps, coconut and sprouted wheat berries. (At La'akea the 60+ poultry are fenced out of the vegetable gardens, rather than fencing them in a particular area...


I had a transcendent music experience, soaking in a jazz quartet last tuesday at an event they envision called Jazz dance freedom (similar intentions to the music and dance co-creation gatherings on the nut house lawn). I wrote a few notes afterwards... drums, elec.bass, plugged in classical guitar and trumpet, each with their own language of nuance and contour. intricate stories: chasable but not attainable, dreamable but not graspable, (capable and not culpable). Music of longing, of desire not ever satisfied, lingering into the thickening canopy of dusk-ing sky. It's a complex and dynamic improv, a sensual dance of sound: sound like sights, smells, like contact with skin, with wind, sunlight: this music evokes a dance of the mystery, of the great spirit....

Wonderful to have closeness and connection with a familiar friend, Bleu and her daughter who' s now 3 years old. We had some playful adventures at the seaview lawn, kahena beach (the site of weekly drum circles, where we drummed, danced, swam and I contributed some clarinet calls), a Hare Krishna community that has delicious pizza night every sunday. this time they had a theater performance about a krishna devotee maintaining purity of heart and intentions despite having the king of the demons as his father (in addition to the hare krishna (x2), krishna, krishna, hare hare, hare rama (x2), rama rama hare hare + dancing and exuberance)... also I visited the community where Bleu and Xyoa have been staying, where (co-incidentally?) my friend Morgan (the song circle seeder, currently of cascadia) will be co-stewarding. another beautiful land with beautiful people, this one on papaya farms road, a region on the lava covered old town of Kapoho, that has many homestead communities, including pangaia, evening rain, coco's... a place for me to visit more when I return (I'm currently thinking next winter for 1-2 months would be suberb, but... quien sabe?) ... it was a very seredipitious connection & I feel very grateful have gotten to spend time with them here, a bridging of lands, faraway homes...

(now its tomorrow), I moved out of La'akea in a bit of a whirlwind. now I sit at punatic cyber cafe... I've been working out the logistics of arranging to rent a car on gifted money, hitchhiking to the hilo airport to do so, then driving over to kona to pick up little bro. we'll be staying the first couple nights at spencer beach park in south kohala, just north of hapuna beach... then onwards clockwise around the island!
In just 2 weeks I will fly in a jet: to a one day stint on oahu, my birthplace, then return to cascadia on tuesday June 2nd.
blessings
I love you.
Jurmy

...intra/inter/infrapersonal bloggings

tossing many thoughts around in my head, as I, baffled by the lights of the computer screen and ambience of the coffee shop I sit in, try to remember what there is to 'blog' about. (now I don't mean to blog, but...)

yesterday I set an intention of moving with grace and ease through the day, not over exerting myself, using just the amount of energy necessary for each task, becoming one with the task. I was by and large very successful. ordinary tasks, accomplished with flow and heart and cooperation: weeding, fertilizing and mulching (working with a tractor and wheelbarrows) taro and yams; using a gas-powered weed whacker (becoming 1 with it)...

I wrote in my journal in the morning in a treehouse made of strawberry guava and bamboo rounds lashed together to some standing str. guava trees, the sunlight twinkling on the leaves, up above the high point on the land...
I remember that expressing my feelings, my process, to others & being supported and heard by them is so important... that all communities need hold this type of space for intimacy to deepen.
I have been largely focused on observation, inspiration, and going with the flow on this trip. I see the times of initiating projects, being proactive in networking, actively manifesting up ahead in the pnw. I have not felt the need to deeply root myself here, to make a few more substantial connections, with people, community and land, than to become slightly integrated for this short period of time in the greater Puna cosmos.

I am reminded of the importance of vision:

(from my journal entry; read if you dare/choose)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was asked about my vision last the other night at the heart share, and spoke of each human filling a niche, with areas of special expertise as well as a committment to the labor, interpersonal work, co-envisioning and manifesting, parenting, reponsiveness/responsibility... and that there is a fractal pattern to this communal existence with each (urban/rural) 'household'/'property'/community filling a niche in within the community of the city block/acreage/town and each town in the bioregion, each bioregion within the island/continent (with trade of the surplus from the abundance of that biome's particular gifts (blueberries/avocadoes/deer/wool, wood? )...the surplus only, so that the ability of the people, animals, plants and other organisms of the bioregion to sustain themselves is not undermined by the externally placed 'demand'/'need' of bananas, coffee, sugar or whatever. only the surplus offered up by the locals, after their needs are met fit into this balanced vision of a trade web. This may include at each level of the fractal network not only food, but crafts, fabric, fuels, fodder/animal feed and music, dances, stories, spiritual and interrelational prcatices, ideas, information, techniques of design, healing & medical techniques & technology, machines, appropriate & low embodied energy technologies, skills, etc. ... all that are media within the micro to macro continuum of the ecos.

I intend to maintain, remember, feed and grow this vision, expand with it, allow it to integrate with the fine details of life & practice in the day to day (& breath to breath), season to season, cycle to cycle...
from my work and play in this vision, I hope to spawn songs, writing, plays, facilitation and teaching. these powers mostly lie dormant in me at this time and I can see that a major reason I left the arts for now is that I was in a 'bubble' (and still allow myself to be/choose to be sometimes)... and that my powers of creation and expression will achieve the confidence and humility, the presense and the potency that they need to be both beautiful and functional through allowing them to unfold from within the vision, from my experiences, observations and learnings exploring and practicing the details of following the vision, of uncovering and creating it, of learning to see in relation to the vision, to hear and feel in relation to my values and vision, the process of learning to be, to live the vision.
("You can only write what you know" has been often said, and if all I've known is writing or theater making, then the people in these circles are the ones who will relate to the art and be affected by it--hence, the artistic bubble/vaccuum)
I can see the days coming in which I am more outspoken, utilizing my skill base, grounded within my vision/values.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I accompanied Biko, Tracy and their daughter, Ai'ala, La'akean community members, in a coconut gathering mission. I was 'ground crew' lowering bunches of cocos down on a with a simple pulley system (Biko climbed up the trees, got up into the canopy (where one sometimes encounters bees, centipedes a/o rats), attached the rope to one 'rack' of cocos after another, then sawed off their connecting stem, as I lowered them down. We got plenty of 'drinkers' (young ones full of delicious nutrient rich water and scant to moderate jelly-like flesh; 'shakers' which give a slush sound upon shaking because they have aged and lost some of their water (normally the water is still great, maybe slightly fermented and the flesh is thicker and rubbery; and 'grounders', brown-gray hulled cocos taken off the ground: the flesh is solid and fibrous/fatty, the water is mostly gone a/o not so tasty, the flesh ranges from great to munch or make coconut milk to good chicken /duck feed (they love it); and also 'sprouters' that have begun to sprout leaves and in which the water has turned into a custardy cupcake like substance that some people love but I normally think tastes like soap.
This was a great initiation for me into team coco foraging. maybe I'll get a chance to climb some short ones next week.

I had an amazing time at the community 'ecstatic' dance last sunday. I really allowed myself to abandon my ego and enter the energy of the room: probably like 120 people flowing both individually and together. live drum set and electric bass accompanied the dj'ed music. after wards I received a free sample of watsu massage, which was perhaps the most relaxing 15 minutes of the decade for me... being totally supported in the water (with ankle and knee floats) and releasing my head and neck into the practictioner, Lilia. I guess I use a substantial amount of energy keeping myself up when I'm in the water... I was inspired to take classes in this gentle partner massage/dance in the future.
Then, I went and swam in the wild waves of Kahena beach with a bunch of others hanging out there for the weekly drum circle gathering. beautiful and totally sunny for a change. I also played a couple of drums and danced some more. It felt so good to connect in this way, to play and feel so free and safe. It was great healing after a week of lots of physical labor and a couple doctor visits. ((I'm still having some heartburn like symptoms...I got hawaiian health insurance to kick in and am getting blood tests and x-rays and doctor visits at No cost... It feels to good to know I can have medical help without having to worry about how the hell am I going to pay for it and finding myself weighing the financial value of my health (priceless!).
Overall, I feel good and am not worried about my heart's health...my blood pressure is normal and I had another electrocardiograph done ("normal") just to be sure. If I find something out from these tests than I will have some more tools for healing, but I'm not relying on it. I've been working at simplifying my diet and working at being more conscious of how much & what I need to eat vs. how much (and what) I desire to eat.

I love you all and look forward to returning home for an integrating and reconnecting summer... and onwards.

puna verse

I've settled into a supposed energy vortex known as puna (or the 'punaverse'). I like it here. there's lots of farming, musicians, artists, foragers, tantrics and maniacs. and plenty of rain. apparently the rainy season is on the brink of tapering off, but freshly evaporated ocean waters pour on us now.

I had a great last few days in Hawi. Cedar, the goat, gave birth to 3 kids, and it was a joy to hang with them, watch them engage in goaty play, a bit clumsily. I milked the mother a bit, but she wasn't all that into it. I tried to force her into the miking stanchion but she really wasn't into that, so we just got a bit out of her to keep her from swelling up too much. the kids probably needed most of it anyway...

On my travels down here to Puna, where I've settled into a month long work trade arrangement, I befriended a really sweet quebequois couple who invited me to travel with them in their rental car. we cruised through the south of the island, sat with some sea turtles resting and eating in tidepools. we camped near the kiluela caldera (the currently active volcano), hiked around on fifty year old ground in kiluale iki (little kiluela), with warm to hot steam vents shooting out here and there. the rainforest environs were dense and misty and reminded me of the northwest. I've sense encountered mative hawaiin thimbleberries (longer and smaller leafed then their pnw cousins), black cap raspberry cosuins, and heard tell that there are 11 native vaccinium species (huckle/blue berriy relatives), and salmon berry cousins... so much shared ancestry of which I've yet to look into the lineage story.

The place I'm at is called La'akea. It's an intentional community, with daily check ins and weekly meetings (one for business / consensus decision making) the other for 'heart sharing'. Its a place with a 20 + year history of permaculture design. Unlike the last place I was at, this one is in the middle of jungle, sub-tropical rainforest, with managed gardens, orchards, plant guilds and animal (incl. human) homes etched into an abundance of wildness. In the first day of worktrading I herded misdirected sheep and harvest and dug into a jackfruit that was at least 40 pounds (its the largest tree growing fruit, sometimes weighing over 100 lbs (or heavier than the artist as of recently re-known as prince!)); also took cuttings of some tropical perennial spinach and sweet potatoes. It's a beautiful place, more like what I was looking for. It took me a while to get here, but so it goes, I'm here now and thankful.

besides being with people who share my values of living together and consciously managing and living within land, for all the beautiful plants thriving in the warm and wet, I'm thankful that I'm able to be near soaking wet and not freezing because of it, that they have bikes I can use (I'm in town, Pahoa, now, about 4 miles away), that there are natural steam rooms (hot steam vents shooting into caves) I can bike to. To be close to the ocean, to live near a beach with weekend drum and dance gatherings... and to be returning in less than 6 weeks.

I am still having acid reflux problems. I just went to a clinic and they reassured me (again) that my heart and lungs are healthy. So I await the onset of hawaiian insurance coverage and try another round of acid reducer pills along with careful diet. once the insurance comes through (hopefully in a week or 2 ) I'm going to have my stomach and esophagus checked out more thoroughly , unless the heartburn is by then solved (hopefully it will be so)...

...kind of a scattered bl'enrty.
I wish all health, love and bliss following.

jeremy