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