Some of the things I’d like to interact about on Sage are:

1. Holistic Medicine in all cultures
2. Prayer and Meditation practices in all cultures
3. Organic Farming & Sustainable Living in different areas of the world
4. The Healing Properties of Fresh Foods
5. Rebuilding Communities: What’s going on locally and around the world?

I’ve been studying all of these subjects for the past 5 or 6 years and I would like to share what I’ve gathered; through others and through my personal experiences.

I personally incorporate Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Ho’o Pono Pono (A Hawaiian Practice) and Native American Teaching into my own spiritual practice. I believe it’s all the same message in different forms. The “Spirit” of the Great Wisdom of “I Am” never changes. It’s a flow that we see in many forms but its core is rooted in eternity. What’s awesome is that we’re all a part of it. And it’s our “Kuleana:” Right and Responsibility to “Kokua:” Care For and “Hui Malama:” Work Together for the Greater Good and put our collective Love back into it, in gratitude for all it gives, and is giving, us.

So it is our Honor and Duty to care for the world we share. To stop, and put an end to, the rape, pillage and plundering that has gone on for too long. We can bring it back. We can restore it, and ourselves, in the process. We have the power to heal ourselves and our planet. There are many of us working on doing just that. Here are just a few that I’ve had the honor of having been touched by.

1. “Grow The Change” is in its infancy yet there are two powerful forces at work here. Let’s make that three. I call it the KHAKO Food Forest Trinity: The Great Spirit, Melissa Connelly and Rebekah Kuby.

Rebekah has been very ill for the past three months and has been on the mainland receiving treatment. Our hearts and prayers are with her.

Melissa Connelly has been coming from Hana every Tuesday for well over two years, to teach keiki in the KHAKO garden. She teaches them to plant, harvest and eat nutritious food that is difficult to come by in Wailuku, especially if you’re a low-income family and living in Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center.

So far Rebekah and Melissa have, with the help of the Maui Community Work Day, transformed a 300’ x 60’ sand drainage ditch. They first began the arduous task of building up the soil. Strangely, not even weeds were growing there. Tons of green waste was mixed into the soil and bananas, papaya, comfrey, sweet potato, and pigeon pea were planted to feed the soil.

Within a year, KHAKO was producing bananas, papaya, sweet potato, egg plant and herbs. They also used the space to restore and propagate many native and canoe plants, including endangered species.

In the Fall of 2013 Maui Community Work Day lost their grant and were forced to cut the program. There were no funds available. Rebekah tried desperately to find funding, but aside from a few small donations and the support of MSGN (Maui School Garden Network) and Grow Some Good, it was looking pretty grim.

Melissa, despite the lack of financial resources, continued to come from Hana every Tuesday, paying for own gas, taking a day off from work, and using her own personal money to purchase supplies. She refused to let the garden fail after they had worked so hard on it, and the vision it represented. She felt an obligation and a sense of duty; she felt it was her Kuleana to see that this garden survived and, more so, thrived.

The children were the other half of that responsibility. They looked forward to working with, and learning from, “Auntie Melissa.” She knew they depended on her. They love her. The program is not only educational and good exercise, it’s Healing. Many of the children at KHAKO have come from traumatizing situations. Everything from physical and sexual abuse, living on the streets, to having a lack of structure and security.

The KHAKO garden program is more than just an Organic Garden; it’s a sanctuary. The earth has been fed and nurtured and now it is feeding us, in Mind, Body and Spirit.

Many of the adults in KHAKO like to go down to the garden looking for serenity. It’s not uncommon to find someone sitting and playing his guitar or uke, to see people in quiet conversation, comforting one another, or someone meditating or strolling with their thoughts. It’s a place of reflection. People gain hope by planting something and coming back to see it alive and thriving. They see this and think, “Maybe I can try one more time.” Many feel defeated here. If we can not only feed and educate them, and also inspire hope, how can we not? Melissa and Rebekah have done all the hard work, we only need to see that our resources continue to sustain it.

If you see the value in all of this and it speaks to you, please contribute; in time, materials, or monetarily. You’d be helping so many for so little. If every upper income family donated one hundred dollars, every middle income family donated twenty, and if lower income families might donate five, we could have the garden complete and thriving and begin work on the prison and the low-income apartments next door. This is one small stone of the bridge that empowers communities.

Build communities in mind, body and spirit. That’s a solution, not a magic pill. Health, education, and hope. That’s what thriving communities need. Let’s rebuild lives!

Here at KHAKO there are many reasons for homelessness. There’s an elderly man with liver cancer, a woman with a brain tumor, another is the victim of two strokes. Many have diabetes and high blood pressure, some have lost their jobs, gone through a divorce, mental and emotional breakdowns, some are migrant and some are simply indigenous people who can’t afford to live in their own land due to the commercialization of the Islands.

Many Hawaiians are now living in tents and other makeshift housing. Hunting, fishing and farming have been overtaken by tourism, corporate incursions and the American consumer industry. Rent and food prices are exorbitant while fair wages remain at the bottom of the barrel. Seven dollars an hour was what I had to take as my wages for working as a hostess at a local restaurant. I was a glorified busboy who did hard, physical work. The waitresses, who worked equally as hard, had to clean rubber kitchen mats, mop the floors, stock, vacuum, and dust. A lot of these women were my age (53) or older. They were exhausted and it showed. They had chronic pain in their backs, feet, hands, shoulders, etc. I saw these women get “stiffed,” receiving either no tips, or as little as five dollars on a hundred dollar tab. Many are working two jobs and supporting children and grandchildren. Work is scarce and wages low while rent and food costs are outrageous.

This is another reason I support community gardens and food forests. Raw, organic food is the best medicine for living well, not to mention the benefits of learning to grow and farm, and getting out into the fresh air and working up a sweat. And finally, there’s the satisfaction of a sense of accomplishment while bringing in healthy, less expensive food that wasn’t imported from the mainland.

Maui has the resources to be totally and abundantly sustainable. If we could get more communities united in the mission, we might strive for 50% sustainability, and that would be a good start, and would be healing ourselves and the Aina in the process. Less shipping in, less waste, packaging and processed foods and less illness.

For more information:

See the following and see what they’re doing and how you might like to be involved.

Maui School Garden Network (MSGN)

See-Farm

Grow Some Good

Grow The Change

The Shaka Movement

Project Kuleana

 

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

SAGE

Sustainable Aina for Generations Empowered

My intention is: to Live Aloha, To support indigenous people and their culture and, To remember I am a guest here and need to do whatever I can to support and offer myself as a servant of the People and the Land I have the honor to stand on. It’s my Kuleana. And it is my hope that no more Hawaiian people are forced to leave their land and, even more, to bring those who have left back to a more recognizable Hawaii.