Blog

The Kamafiki Crew, as we named ourselves, went on our first overnight sail this past Saturday, a moonless night so we could see stars. Basically there are six of us on this crew that means 'magic' in Samoan, according to Captain Buddy. It's a word he uses when something suddenly fixes itself or does what it's supposed to. None of us could find it in a Samoan dictionary and the one Tongan one of us asked had never heard of kamafiki. When you think about it, it makes sense that there wouldn't be such a word as magic, at least in a Polynesian cultural context, because magic is sorcery. Anyway... we liked the word. The six of us on this crew bonded from training for the Hokule'a world wide sail. We all pretty much started coming to classes at the same time last year and so became friends. Only four could make [Read More...]

I am raising funds for a new book called Walking In A Sea of Dreams. I was born in the year of the rabbit, so it is not in either my personality type or comfort zone to call attention to myself, at least in the way I am doing through the Kickstarter.com project I set up. I have been humbled by the response. I've gotten lots of grants and commissions but nothing like belief and support from friends and family to create a personal obligation and desire to make a totally excellent project. And I will. When I first heard of Kickstarter.com I thought it was very cool but could NEVER imagine myself proposing a project through their site. After thinking more about it and the increasingly limited funding for creative projects (grants or otherwise), I decided to apply. Kickstarter accepted my application and here I am, in a place that has [Read More...]

Almost a year ago I set up this website with the intention of making a place where I could make public commentary on things – events, people, news, movies, kitty cats, whatever struck me. I wanted to be like local newspaper columnist Lee Cataluna and say what I think as a way to get people think more deeply about what’s going on in the community, celebrate neighbors whose deeds are noteworthy yet not significant enough to be reported in the news. Her humor is insightful, local, intelligent, often biting and more often than not, profound. To date, my entries have not been ala Lee Cataluna. I discovered that I am reluctant to make observations about inept politicians or poke fun at my community or people in it because I don’t want to say something that may come back and bite me in the ʻōkole at an inopportune time. I recently attended a [Read More...]

I love dogs, mostly I love animals in general but I am not particularly a cat person. I've never had a real pet (other than a fish) because I travel so much and because I'm not good at cleaning up after them. My fish was a total character (who thought an angel fish could have so much personality!) and when she died several years ago, I was devastated and didn't want to go through the death of a pet again.   Last week, my friend's daughter brought home a box of kittens that had been left to die. I happened to be at their house she came home with the kittens. They were supposed to be left at the humane society but when the daughter was told they were going to be destroyed because they're so young, she brought them home instead, much to her parents' dismay. When we all looked in [Read More...]