me ka pu'uwai hamama

Where did you leave your heart?

Ho'i hou mai kaua e ku'u pili e.

Plaid Friday: t minus 7

In addition to supporting local, you can support indie. Plaid Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when you (and yours who are lounging around) can go browse and support an independent retail merchant.

Can you walk, bike, or take public transportation there? drive less than 10 miles there?

Do you know who the retail proprietor is? or do you know that if you needed to speak with them, they would be responsive to your request?

Is the merchant somewhat knowledgeable about what they offer you? either about the source of the item, how to best use it, or other resources? are they helpful?

I'm going to support places where there are faces, names, and intelligence behind the counter.

Intangibles

Happy Valentine's Day

This post is from a perspective beyond the consumer mentality of material goods - beyond the adage of "the one with the most toys wins".  The toy-laden one could win with a brittle and cold heart.  But interaction with people can keep the heart malleable.  Alert to the malleable heart however - learning to live with vulnerability can be a challenge, too.  Regardless, when we are burdened, intangibles can buoy us and provide some sense of stability as we flounder with everything else around us.

Physical places provide opportunities to engage with other people and form a community.  One such place is A Verb for Keeping Warm (AVFKW), where people welcome you and there is space to pause and work or peruse their goods.  The climate in the shop is literally warm - warm people, warm and true light, warm goods.  They have built a place of community where people from the broad spectrum of skill levels - neophytes, dabblers, and teachers - gather and share.

Another place is the Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance (MUCID), where friendly people gather to dance and make music.  Dance instruction and performance is typically with live music and drumming - energy is mutually shared between musicians and dancers.  Dancers and musicians convey stories and pay homage through movement and music.

In addition to bricks and mortar, the internet can be a vehicle for community.  Social networking sites like Facebook may provide some semblance of community, however the platform changes too frequently for my taste.  Ravelry is a specialized site with a particular interest and focus on knitting, crocheting, and spinning.  Interaction and observations can be shared in groups, forums, and messages.  I don't know what the privacy settings are on Ravelry.  I don't feel a need to know.

Other examples are simple and are highlighted here as a reminder: an invitation to a gathering where an activity or interest is shared - playing music or making things with our hands.  A conversation with a neighbor as we each tend our gardens.  An exchange of homegrown fruit for a homemade meal.  A place of time and space where the ground rule is that we enter with the same spirit we wish to be greeted with.

Shop local

The perennial question of "so what do you want for Christmas?" has been asked, and I have the luxury of having so much to live with and from, that I get to think about a response that can engage others around me.

The adage "think global, act local" has always been meaningful to me. So I return to this, especially as the general economy is depressed, and the action is to "shop local". This idea is described simply in the 3/50 Project: pick 3 local independent "brick and mortar" stores you couldn’t live without and if you spend $50 each month amongst the 3 then basically you are strengthening your own community.

It’s important to remember the repercussions our purchases have. For every $100 spent on local independent stores, $68 goes back into the community through payroll, taxes, and other expenditures. If you spend $100 on a national chain store, only $48 comes back; and if you buy from an online source, NONE of it comes back.

I want my friends and community to do well and to be well.  In turn, we will be better equipped to reach out and assist others - on a local AND global level.