Have a Great Day Today!

"Here's what I want you to know today. My Papa is feeling a lot better. Look how handsome he is.

I finally learned how to ride my bike, and I can rock it on our dirt road. I rode two miles just last weekend with my mom and dad!

I can also blow bubbles now if I have a big enough piece of gum. I'm an expert knitter in knitting class, and my yoga poses are very strong. I'm the only one in my class who can do Full Lotus. If you're having any breathing trouble or a scratchy throat, just bend at the waste and go 'head-to-knee' -- it's great for coughs. Have a good day! Love, Selah Rain."

Belated Halloween

Due to Paul's unfortunate accident (broken ribs, lacerated liver) on October 30, the photos we took of Selah for Halloween didn't make it into the computer for errrr... a couple months... Selah was NOT happy about that.

"What about my BLOG?" She emplored. "You must post these photos at once!"

This year she had a myriad of ideas about her halloween costume. It had to be home-made. Not "Store-Made" as she calls the plastic ones you can get from any local drug store. "Store-made is for not-creative people," she explained. I asked her if she expected me to make her costume, she replied with a look I could only describe as "Duh, Mom."

For months prior the costume ideas ranged from Ewok-Princess-With-Wolf-Jacket-Cape to Frog-Goddess-With-Feather-Helmet. I wish so much I could have peered into her brain to see what her image of these costumes were. I wish even more I had the sewing skills to pull them off.

We took Selah to see the new animated Star Wars film "Clone Wars" and it was in the theatre that day that Selah found her ultimate costume idea: Ahsoka Tano, the new young girl initiate to join the Jedi's on their fight to preserve the good of the universe.

I made her costume and we're all proud to report that she WON her costume contest at school for "best home-made costume" and I must say, it was the best one there, hands down! (Hooray!) I've never seen quite a pleased, proud, confident, surprised look on Selah's face, all at once. I broke into tears for her posture as a Winner. It feels pretty good to see your child so fulfilled during what has been a very difficult and challenging period for us.

Love!

(P.S. Paul is doing much better, and recovering quite well !! )

Classic Selah Rain.

The Eight Year Old Yogi

We are driving along the coast of the island, and Selah is looking contemplatively out the window. She turns to me and says she knows what a "psyche" is.

"A psyche is the part of you that already knows what all the answers are."

"what answers do you mean?" I ask.

"All the answers you ever need to know. They're already inside you."

Familial hierarchy

"I'd appreciate it if you moved out of my way," says Selah to the dog.

The dog turns and looks at her and moves out of her way, she smiles and laughs, surprised. "Did you see that? He obeyed me! Now, go make my bed and put away my legos!"

a few recent photos of our the family

Kids Say The Darndest Things...

I was walking hand-in-hand with Selah exiting our local grocery store. A small group of people were standing near the entrance, talking with a very old woman. The old woman was smiling and nodding, and leaning desperately onto a carved cane. She looked sweet and wise.

I overheard someone say, "Tell 'em how old you are now, Mom!"

And the old woman said she was 103 years old.

"It is AMAZING she is still alive, huh, Mama?!!!" Says Selah as we're in perfect earshot.

Plume

Hope: Wow. Look at that beautiful plume.

Selah: I don't know what a "plume" is. What I see is a galloping bunch of horses, wrestling up over each other, into the sky. They're taking Pele's message to the Sun.

Anteia Samara DeLaney

Selah proudly, proudly, proudly introduces her older sister, Anteia Samara DeLaney!

"What do you want to say about Anteia on your blog?"

"Well, I want to say everything. I want to say that Anteia is not my half-sister, to me, she's my WHOLE sister. And she's my best friend, too. She's all of that together, like the ingredients of love. [Pantomimes stirring something yummy in a big bowl] Teia loves me and cares for me. She's Papa's daughter. She's amazing! And very smart! She's a soccer player and a great singer. she can reallllly sing 'Amazing Grace' can't she? I love Teia. That's everything. Type it in."

Anteia lives with her mama and grandmother in Seattle, Washington. She's indeed a soccer star, a natural-born performer (like both of her parents) and very, very dear to all of us.

Simple Pleasures

Overheard conversation between Selah and friend at gymnastics class:

"I wanted my bangs cut. So, you know, I could have some hairs cut off the front. Now I can see better, and they help me balance for my head stands. I'm adorable!!"

When I Grow Up...

"When I grow up, I want to move to Alaska and take care of hurt animals from the wild that need rescuing."



"When I grow up I want to ride on a big dog sled pulled by Huskies."





"When I grow up I want a hawk to land on my shoulder."




"When I grow up I want to live with you forever."




"When I grow up I'm going to have seven children, and they'll all live with me in Alaska."


"Mom, can we get a Husky?"

Hanapua Chair

Before moving to Hawaii in 2003, Selah was given this small, very cute, wooden chair by a friend in Seattle. We've schlepped it over the ocean several times, over several moves. We have very little materially, but we *always* have this chair.

Last Friday afternoon, Selah had the idea to take the deck from a hawaiian card game called Hanapua, and glue them to the chair like a small tiled mosaic. I loved this project with Selah. She chose the order in which the cards would be displayed like tiles, with specific strategy. All of the colors had to be randomized, and not patterned. I love her sense of detail and the way she approaches her artistic perspective. When we were finished with the project, she said, "Shew! I am taxed!" And then sat on the chair feigning exhaustion and admiring her work.

Obon Festival

On Saturday night, the local Japanese mission held it's annual Obon Festival. The "Bon Dance" is one performed with reverence to one's ancestors, and is a walking meditation performed round a large tower strung with lights.

Selah's Japanese instructor Sensei (pictured left, explaining the different regional dances to Selah) invited all the children to come down and join her at the festival. From young to old, the people moved rhythmically, synched together in their regional dances. Some wear their silk kimonos, some cirlce in their local flip-flops and surf shorts. My favorite part was watching the colorful kimono'd elders smiling and turning in unison. The colors were beautiful.

Selah brought along her friend Kayla :0) I think Selah's favorite part of any activity is its potential for being a party. Whether people are spinning fire balls, performing a cultural walking meditation, or just standing around talking, if it feels like it's got party-potential, Selah is ALL OVER IT.

...Wonder where she got that?!! (wink) :0)

Second Grader!

Hello, loved ones!

Second grade started this year with lots of pleasant surprises!

Selah's charter school made several improvements to their site, including a fifteen-passenger van instead of the gas-hogging giant yellow school bus. Last year, each time I would meet the school bus, I noticed that at least one out of three children deboarded in tears. Come to find out, the bus driver was passing out pounds - yes pounds - of candy to the first graders. I'd watch the bus drive in, and notice the children were literally bouncing off their seats. I asked the bus driver to please not give out the candy, as it was clearly not helping keep them calm and safe during their ride afters school. It continues to be a mystery to me that school buses do not have seatbelts! I can't imagine a more important place for a child to be buckled in! So, I'm very excited about the new passenger van, and the elimination of the yellow school bus. We have a different driver this year, Mr. Hawkley, and he is an Waldorf-trained teacher, who keeps things very safe and calm. Selah prefers Mr. Hawkley, she says, "he keeps it all in order.".

The charter school is located in Seaview, which is a small beach community, located literally across the street from a gorgeous natural bay lined with black / sparkling lava rock. When it's not school-time, the location where the charter school is also known as the Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education, or "S.P.A.C.E." The owners are an ex-circus troupe, who are now providing a 'space' for children and adults, and entire families, to come and learn circus tricks, gymnastics, Angola Capoeira, singing & voice instruction, among other amazing classes.

Yesterday after class, Selah had her first gymnastics lesson, and was pleased as punch to learn that there were lots of children from her second grade class that would join her in tumbling. This was the first class I've ever seen Selah participate in where she's deeply involved and interested -- riveted, even -- right until the last minute of the cool down exercises. She ran hard, she played hard, she took a few spills. She didn't want me taking any photos of her in gymnastics class because she wasn't wearing a leotard. So, next Wednesday, she said she'll suit up, and be ready for her close-up!

Bittersweet Television

We beg you to pardon the lack of posts on Selah's blog; we've been somewhat limited to our internet access, and digital camera while in our current moving transition....

The last three months we have been living in lower Puna, doing some worktrade on a large property. Living closer to work and school is going to mean massive savings for the family on gas prices, and a positive steps for the family in business.

We haven't had television (purposely) for approximately five years, though we did watch our share of movies. When we moved into the cabin, we found that we had cable television, and I admit, we totally enjoyed it. We caught up on the Discovery Channel and cartoons galore, were freaked out by how tv seems now to be all-reality, all-the-time, and watched a lot of cooking shows, drooling and wishful.

Since most of Selah's life has been television-free, her response to it was both surprising and scary. She was intent on listening to every word of every commercial, took everything very literal, and was profoundly affected. After a few days of tv access, she was pointing out brands in the local grocery store with passionate determination. "This is the QUICKER PICKER UPPER, this is the one that is QUILTED and it's a ONE-SHEETER!!!" The look on her face of utter seriousness was a fast, jolt of reality for us. This kid has fallen prey to propaganda, and it happened so easily, and so fast. Growing up with television, myself, I've been so desensitized by all of the quick flash edits, and numb to the advertising. But, Selah's naiive, beautifully innocent and unjaded soul makes quick work for any advertiser.

One early evening, Selah was checking out some cartoons, and a commercial interrupted her programming. I was in the other room, making a collage, and Selah stormed in, biting mad.

"I was just watching a show and a commercial came on, and it was about bendy glitter pens. They have allllllll these colors that you can buy: copper, gold, blue, green. There's glitter inside and they bend all around. And you can twist them together and mix the colors -- and then -- and then you know what they said?"

"What did they say next, honey?"

She sighed very angrily, hands on her hips. "They said at the end you have to be 18 to order. I don't like that! I can use those pens, and I'm only 7. I don't like that at all. "

While I found this interaction to be hilarious, she did not find any humor in it at all. She found this 18 year old rule to be unjust, and worth a fight. She actually suggested maybe I give "them" a call and tell them just how unfair she found this to be.

Television and life in general are very literal for Selah, right now. I'm happy to say we're without television access once again, as we've made the final transition to the permaculture homestead. I feel even better now about our decision so long ago to remove television programming from our lives. I am hopeful and curious to see how living without television for the rest of her childhood days will affect her, and us. When we don't have a television telling us what we need, creativity and imagination are limitless...

Two New Pieces.

Here are two new pieces of artwork by Selah. Both were painted on scraps of wood from Papa's wood pile with acrylic and water color paint, and Sharpie Markers.

The first one is called The AllerGlobe Piece.

"Well, we were in a plane, in war. And the plane blew-up. We're called the Allerglobes. We parachuted down with special buckles, and then birds came along. They came to show us the way to a new ship."

This next piece is called The Hourglass.

"When our ship blew up, and the birds came, they thought they knew the way to the new ship, but they didn't. Instead, they dropped us off at Heart Mountain. Then, we didn't know the Fire Nation was there -- and we saw fireballs in the clouds -- that means the bad guys were back. I had a special plan. We could fight them, and capture them with heart mountain, which has a healing, gushing waterfall."

Peaceful Summer.

Although we've been working hard, we're still enjoying the wonderful weather. It's been an incredibly peaceful summer, so far. I love this photo of Selah. We were on our way to the beach for a cheeseburger picnic at sunset.

Garlic.

"I only like it as a bread."

--Selah

Weaving Life Lessons Into Her Dreads

Selah has recently been coming to terms with her dread-locked hair. While she's always seemed to be proud of them, she's been hipped by her classmates from school to how "different" her hair is from theirs. And, sometimes being different and standing out from the crowd tends to be a source of teasing and mocking from other children.

Truth be told, Selah's always been different, for a number of wonderful reasons. Obviously, Paul and I would be supportive of her decision to shear them off, but we're hoping she'll be amenable to a few creative ideas of what can be done with them, before cutting her hair off at the scalp. If she were to decide to cut off her dreads, she would be essentially bald for a while. Some of you might remember that her first set of dreadlocks (formed when she was 2) ended up being shorn, and the locks she has now are the "new set" she's been growing out since then.



Dreadlocks are interpretted differently in a many cultures, and it's a common occurrence for them to be shorn when the person who bears them is searching for a change or a release of some kind. We are guessing that Selah is interested in a "change" because she's mentioned she wants "straight hair, like Hannah" or "straight hair, like Mahina" - which is impossible, essentially, because naturally, her hair is kinky and tends to lay in spirals when not locked. Plus, Hannah and Mahina tend to tease intensely, and have likely made it obvious to Selah that their hair is better than hers. I suppose this is when I feel very thankful that Paul has dreads, as well, which is something that Selah finds very endearing, and a fantastic mirror of her wonderful self to be celebrated.



We're thankful she decided she'd like to do a number of creative things with her locks before throwing in the towel, and our first attempt was weaving ribbons within them. She's thrilled, and so are we :0)

We're trying to instill a sense of confidence in her about the fact that she stands out from the other children in her peer group. Having dreadlocks is an obvious contrast to most hair types and styles, and no doubt this is the first of many challenges for her when it comes to being a unique, gregarious, creative genius like she is. I believe entirely in supporting her decisions when it comes to appearance, but at the same time, want to steer her toward believing in her magical, wonderful self. Being different is not easy until you can embrace it as a special part of yourself, unique and dynamic. Selah was born to shine in this light.

The Forest Sprite

Selah was a Forest Sprite in her end-of-the-year play.

Here is Selah, happy as could be, after finishing her play and last day of first grade.

On the ride home she looked at me and smiled, as she was wiggling and wobbling and flopping her string-bean legs back and forth.

She said, "Look Mama, my legs are floppy like yours!"

My camera was hijacked...

... And then I found these beautiful pictures Selah had taken of herself... Except there were about fifty-three more, of just up her nose shots, so I picked the best of the bunch. Enjoy!