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...