Happy Birthday to the Sweet Sagi Sisters!

May all align for us, dear Becca, this coming year and in years to come. Love you!

Local/Foraged/Homegrown Food Challenge

Hi friends! Sunday afternoon here on the Big Island. It's been a lazy one so far. I slept until 11:30 following a 2:30AM return from a festival last night--whew! Seems like a good day to post to the quadblog, give a little slice-of-#abigailinhawaii-life. Hmmm, here goes! Yesterday I went to the Kohala 'Aina (Land/"that which feeds us" in Hawaiian) Festival and it was remarkable. SOOO many bright, healthy, happy, loving and kind people celebrating local and sustainable and traditional food systems, working together toward food sovereignty and health for the people of this island. http://hipagriculture.org/events/kohalaaina I really feel like I am where I am meant to be, doing good work both personally and through teaching. We as westerners, and as Hawaiians, are at a cultural crossroads, and killing ourselves through many of our choices. Living in a way that our planet can support, and teaching the youth to own their health and honor both their bodies (nutrition education) and the land has been really powerful for me. Related to that, I started a "spend no money on food" challenge five days ago, and am not going to use any USD for food purchases for the rest of the month! Really. Involvement with the food sovereignty movement here has really inspired me to see what I can do to reduce my dependence on imported, manufactured food. SO much oil to ship things to this island, which makes me complicit in international war crime and the desecration of land, air, and waters. This I want to change. Plus it's just not as healthful as eating local, fresh food. Decided it was time to educate myself, through experience, on what it actually takes to practice what I'm advocating. Other reasons/inspirations for this personal challenge fall into the spiritual (and monetary) categories. Deepening my spiritual practices and moving beyond my ego to connect with my true self has opened my eyes to how much I think I am doing /the illusion of control I have over my life. Really, there is no need to worry, or have anxiety. I will always be taken of. All manner of provision comes in its time. (Are we not all okay? Things always work out!) I'm realizing that my work here is simply to focus on being pure of heart, and working toward becoming my best self, and I will be taken care of. I truly believe that if I am the most loving, kind, helpful, understanding, patient person I can be, and take care of others and the land, I know that I too will be taken care of, in all ways. There is a "myth of scarcity" that is easy to believe in, and which I am trying to challenge for the sake of spiritual growth. Here's an example: yesterday while volunteering at the festival I saw that a guy I know, a cute (married) 30-year old farmer named Kyle, needed some help setting up his Hawai'i Farmers Union United booth. I came over and helped him find the materials he needed, and connect with the people who could answer his questions. At the end of the event he told me to take whatever vegetables I wanted from the table's display. I got huge delicious radishes, a beautiful squash, and was offered even more (cabbage, bok choi, noni fruit, bees) that I knew I wouldn't be able to carry. My roommate was also at the festival and came by my volunteer station (where I was selling musician merchandise) and gave me four unripe avocados someone had brought from their own tree. Later I wanted some kava but it's food so I didn't want to spend money on it. A friend I drove up said, "Let me buy it for you!" and did this as a trade for the ride. The whole time there was ample food: organic, vegan, almost all raw, and definitely all local, for me to eat as a volunteer. This challenge has encouraged me to volunteer at events like this, too, which is a wonderful way to connect to community. :) Finally, as a part-time teacher, I am only paid hourly. I'll be missing a paycheck over the holidays. Almost 1/4 of my income seems to have been going to food. If I can learn to eat from the land around me, the school garden, and grow more of my own, I'll be able to redirect some money into things like savings and TRAVEL FUNDS!!! Yeah! So that's the biggest thing I'm doing right now. I'm also in love with my co-teacher again. Haha. Dated this awesome triathlete guy for a little while, who is STELLAR on paper, but broke it off because I didn't feel like I was honoring my sexuality as sacred--something I am learning to do as an adult. Working on some soul healing, have had to make some hard choices to cut out nice men who are genuinely interested in me. Not feeling lonely, though, which is great. Let's see if I can get some photos from my phone into this post...