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!

Graduate of First Grade!!

From Left to Right: Nandi (Selah's classmate), Miss Tachina (3rd grade teacher), Miss Megan Cannon (Selah's teacher), Selah, and Kristen Sensei (Japanese Teacher).

Selah recently graduated from her first grade class! She's done with school until the end of July. She was a "forest spirit" in the end-of-the-year play called George and The Dragon, where she twinkled across the stage, arms graceful yet flailing. When it was time for the play to proceed where George tames the Dragon, Selah was in the background pretending to eat the painted apples from the set decoration. I asked Miss Megan after the play is this was supposed to be Selah's part, with a smile. Miss Megan laughed and said Selah had clearly improvised her part and with great creativity!

This summer, while she's out of school, Selah decided she wanted to learn two things: How to Swim, and Sign Language. With a gulp (and attitude of positive determination), I set out to find some great books on Sign Language, and we've begun our study of silent communication, beginning with the alphabet. Selah has a fantastic memory, and this morning she requested breakfast by spelling C-E-R-E-A-L. As for swimming lessons, we've decided to hit the public swimming pool two miles from home twice weekly, and thankfully, the weather is spectacular.

Along with swimming and signing, Selah has also begun riding her bike everyday, and continues to draw with great agility and imagination. She wishes everyone a 'super great' summer, and lots of blessings. :0)

10 brothers

As some of you might know, Selah claims to have 10 brothers, invisible to everyone but her. And although we can't see them like she can, they are mostly characters we've all seen before, like Dobby (from Harry Potter), Yoda, Luke, 2 Ewok & Han Solo (from Star Wars). Sometimes Selah will interchange different characters from different stories she encounters - but the main staples of her clan seem to be Dobby & Yoda. She requests their counsel quite frequently and refers to their needs and desires.

Selah picks up a pocket calculator and places it to her ear. "This is my cell phone right now." She places the phone in her upturned palm, peering at it, punching numbers. She announces what Dobby's phone number is, and then asks for some silence to have her conversation with her forefinger in the air.

"Hello, Dobby? Uh-huh... Yeah.... Oh, sure - talk to Papa."

Paul takes the phone from her. "Hey Dobby, make it a great Wednesday. Get over that hump!"

She takes the phone back, places it over her ear, she saunters away with a smile, "Good one, Papa."

Selah is going to save the world.

Selah's very favorite animated show right now is called Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Twelve year old Aang is the main character of the series, and he's been discovered by two siblings, his age, as the last Avatar. An Avatar is a person who employs earth, fire, air, and water magic to save the world from the destructive lordship of the Fire Nation. Aang can often be found meditating quietly, before battling the forces against him, among other disciplines he employs.

Recently, I went looking for Selah because the house became very quiet. I peaked into her bedroom and saw her sitting cross-legged, with her hands clasped together over her heart. She turned and looked up at me, from her spot on the carpet in a stream of sunlight, "Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.....," she whispered, "I'm medi-cating."

Teefs

Selah lost her first tooth last year, when she was six. She pushed it around with her tongue until it was barely hanging on by a single thread. Paul and I tried to coach her into a sure-fire method of removal, but she wasn't having any of it. She made multiple excuses constantly:

"It'll come out next year, sometime."

"Maybe if I pour some water on it, then it will melt out."

"I want this tooth forever, I don't want it out."

"After Burning Man festival, it'll come out."

All of her reasons for holding so tightly onto this tiny bottom, barely-there tooth seemed perfectly logical to her... So we let it go, and eventually, it came out. Now, more than a year later, she's lost a grand total of EIGHT teeth - including the top front two teeth. It's taken her face a few months to catch up to the size of these chompers!

Yesterday Selah told a friend at school that there was indeed a tooth fairy, and it was her mom. She was coming off the big yellow school bus, and commanding a group of about 10 children's attention with her story:

"My mom is the tooth fairy for all the children in the world. She goes to their rooms in the middle of the night, she tip toes in there, and she STEALS the teeth! Then, she leaves them all ten dollars, and they wake up and spend the money! Isn't that cool? Isn't my mom, cool?!"

Suddenly, ten children turned toward me, and they all wanted 10 dollars.

A La Francais

Here's Selah skipping at the zoo with her French teacher, Madame, and a classmate.

Recently, Selah's great and wonderful school, Waters of Life, was hit with a permit issue, and was consequently closed down. Thankfully, this occurred right as the children were about to have their spring hiatus, and gave the heads of the school some time to find an alternative space.

A new school site was secured, but won't be ready until next week. The new site is an arts performance center in a small beach community called Seaview. This performance center is run by a wonderful soul named Graham, who also coaches a team of acrobats and performers in a troupe called The Hiccup Circus. Now Selah will add stilt-walking, unicycle and gymnastics to her usual, amazing routine.

Until then, the students have been going on excursions like the zoo, the school's farm, and the beach. At each location, the specialty teachers join the students in between play activities. For instance, today, Selah had all of her classes at the zoo. She chased and marveled at the peacocks, wandering free on the pathways around the exhibits, and then she sat in the shade with her classmates and had French.

Madame is such a wonderful, expressive, passionate educator - she speaks to the children entirely in her native tongue. I cannot explain how amazing it is for me, as a mother, to watch my child understand and comprehend such a complex language. The only thing I understood was Bon Jour! But then, after that, it was a blur of Madame's wild hand movements, throated, whispery French words and giggling children, who all seemed to understand every word she said.

It warms us so deeply to experience a taste of this learning style. How lucky Selah and the other children are who have the opportunity to expand like the sponges they are in such a dynamic, exciting environment. What would our lives have been like if we were learning French in a zoo, on an island in the Pacific, with monkeys, parrots and cranes chirping in the background~!?

It's an amazing blessing and an honor to see Selah open and grow with such confident curiosity, to be exactly who she is, and celebrated for it.

Hard Boiled Eggs

Selah has discovered she LOVES hard boiled eggs.

The smell of eggs makes Paul and I absolutely sick to the point of watery-mouth-illness.

We think her new interest in hard boiled chalky egg yolk is her way of silently torturing us.

Selah's Pets

These are Selah's two dogs.

The pug is actually a "foster dog" we are caretaking while his owner is away fighting a stupid war in Iraq. Her name is Winnie, and she is about 50 years old (in human years). She's portly, she's stocky and she's old - but don't let that furry exterior fool you - she can turn Sumo Wrestler crossed-with-growling Howler Monkey in a hot second. Winnie likes to watch cartoons and movies with Selah, and becomes aggressively protective when she sees Chewbacca or any other furry creature appear on the screen. Selah likes to put bonnets on Winnie. She's hoping for a basket attachment for her bike soon, "so I can stick Winnie in there, like E.T. and Elliott, flying over the moon."

The black pup is Mosu, our Manchester Terrier who famously hunts rabbits (and ate our beloved chicken). We adopted Mosu from a local no-kill animal shelter about two years ago. He's an amazing dog, very smart and loyal, and very attached to Selah. We have to bar her bedroom shut at night because Mosu has found a way to climb her bunkbed ladder. He loves to snuggle with his favorite girl, but his fur makes her sneeze when it's slathered all over her blankets. :0(

These pets are an integral part of Selah's life, and she's just starting to be involved in their daily care and feeding. She is constantly trying to talk me into giving the dogs baths, and will randomly bring me clean rags to clean their ears. "I think I'll let the vet do that when we take them in next week," I say. "I'm a vet, I can do it," says Miss Selah. The dogs always manage to escape her intentions of ear cleaning, and I think they can sense when she's going to attack. They hide under the beds.

"They look little and sweet and stuff, but they'll bark you off our land, or... eat your chicken." Selah says.

Papa visits home

Paul has been away from home for the better part of two months. We get to see him every two weeks or so, for short stints. He's building houses for Bamboo Technologies. We were treated to a short visit home and he left again yesterday.... It was so wonderful to have him home. We're a lucky family. :0)

Ashur

One day, Selah turned to me while we were driving in the car and said, "Ashur is my boyfriend, now."

"Oh?" I smiled, and turned the radio off.

"Yes," she continued. "He's realllllllly cute, and I have him locked in my heart forever." Her hands were clasped together and she was dreamily smiling.

"Maybe we should call Papa and tell him about Ashur." I got Paul on the cell phone at his job site on Oahu (where he's building his sixth bamboo house), and he talked to her for a few minutes. She repeated what she told me, including the part where she referred to him as her boyfriend. After she and Paul were done chatting, she smiled wide and handed the phone to me.

"Hello, honey?" I said, happy to hear his voice.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Paul asks in a serious tone.

"They're just friends..." I say, laughing.

"No."

Clearly miffed and unhappy about this new development, Paul is showing signs of becoming the father that waits for the boy on the porch with a shotgun.

Later that day, after I picked up Selah from school, she explained her and Ashur had an argument.

"...But, I won't let him out of my heart. I'll put a fence up around my heart, and a lock with a key, so he can't get out.... And then I'll put caulk in between the fence bars, so he'll really be blocked in."

What could I say. Hilarious. We thought it to be especially genius that she would employ the use of caulk (a sealing agent Paul uses in carpentry) to block Ashur in forever.

I just have to say out of alllllll the children Selah could have picked to lock into her heart, Ashur is by far the cutest, sweetest, bestest choice.

For now.

Selah's Friends

Amelia (left) and Diego (right) are two of Selah's closest friends here on the Big Island. We met their family on Maui, originally, about four years ago. Wow, how time is flying...

Breakfast in Bed

Selah woke me up this morning at 7:00 am. Typically we're out the door at this time, making the 20 mile drive to her school. But, today is Friday! (No school on Fridays)

Selah: ...wake up Mama, I made coffee and breakfast for you.

Hope: ....wh-what? How did you...?

Selah: It's in the kitchen!

Hope: How long have you been awake?

Selah: About six hours!

[ not true, probably an hour ... I walked into the kitchen to find that she poured grounds into the resevoir of the coffee maker, and had cracked about 10 eggs into a pan. ]

Hope: Thanks - I can see that you really wanted to do something nice for me...

Selah: Actually, I just wanted you to wake up.

Selah's favorite thing in the whole world is a baby.

This is Dejah Mahina Kapralova (Kele and Jasmine's daughter), who was born in June of 2007.

Another Favorite Dress

Here are two more pictures of Selah, taken about five months ago, in another of her favorite dresses. This dress was given to her by Chris and Anne Marie Roche.

aloha

This is the most recent photo I've taken of Selah. She's currently over four feet tall, weighs around fifty pounds, and wears a size 2 shoe. She's modeling a new dress that was handmade in Nicaraugua from her Grandma Yayu (Susan). She was quite insistent on Winnie (the pug in the background) staying put and being a part of the experience.



Here is a video of Selah dancing with her new dress on... This video was taken approximately two weeks ago. If you can hear the audio, the song is "The River is Flowing" by Sky Cries Mary (a Seattle band). Selah has quite a diverse list of songs that are favorites, and typically she wants to hear the current favorite a minimum of between four and sixty times per day.




Currently, Selah attends Waters of Life Charter School. In her first grade class of 18 children, she is currently learning Japanese and French, Hand Crafting Skills (currently this is knitting), Yoga and Dance Movement, Reading and Story Telling. The Waldorf trained teacher of her class is Megan Cannon -- an angel born to be Selah's first grade teacher. After an exhaustive search of our limited options for her education on this island, Waters of Life opened up like a ray of sunshine from a giant cloud. Miss Megan, as they call her, will be Selah's teacher all the way through grade six. She is truly a beautiful soul, and we couldn't be happier with her fondness for Selah. When we went to our first parent/teacher conference, she began our meeting by taking a big breath, and then broke into soft tears, saying, "Selah is an amazing gift to our class. She has truly the most golden heart." You can imagine that there wasn't a dry eye in the room.



Aside from going to a great school, Selah's major interests are in Star Wars movies, the animated series about a young warrior boy who can 'bend air' called The Avatar, reading and story telling, and drawing. She's quite articulate and deliberate and focused upon whatever she's immersed in, and her imagination continues to amaze us. About one year ago, she began telling Paul and I that she had 10 brothers that only she could see. The list has grown and grown, but rarely does she include any female characters -- those come in the form of her other fascination: Fairies. On and around our very pretty land, she's found nooks and pathways, and she will often disappear for moments at a time, shouting she's found a fairy forest, and she'll be right back. She loves the idea of bridges, as well. I tend to see her dragging large planks of wood from under the house to build bridges over small burms, and using water from the hose, and dug-out crevices to create streams.



Selah talks constantly about being an animal healer or vetrinarian, and I have a feeling that one day soon she's going to bring a lost dog or chicken or wild pig home and swear that it just followed her. She will often make small terrariums out of white 5 gallon buckets, filling them with chunks of black lava rocks, making sure to spritz all the surfaces with water, and then spend four hours trying to catch slimey black salamanders that live under the rocks. These salamanders, she explains, are the good-luck-dragons for the fairies that live on our land. Ah, to be seven again.



Be well, everyone.



Love,



Hope