An Aloha Blast From The Past

 

A Her/Historical Hello!

Isn't it funny to sometimes take a look back at where you've been?

Those of you who've been part of this little worldwide “community” over the years know we generally tend to send out a hello 1x-2x a year some times (and every once in a “blue moon” at other times)...

Here's excerpts from one recently unearthed hello of many years ago. (Thanks for the memories!)

Has this been an incredible year of change and growth, or what?!

Wow. I’ve had to sit down!

Someone mentioned that this was the year of radically transforming what no longer works, making room for what is more right…and they were not kidding!

Here on our isle of blossoms (where life expectancy is higher than the national average, perhaps due to the bounty of nature and spirit?!!), we have begun celebrating something on the cellular level that has been coming into focus and making itself known: the concept of “showing up.”

i.e. wonderful surprises from the Universe showing up (which of course we always love!)…AND the idea of showing up with deep commitment, again and again — even when it’s not easy — for ourselves, our path, our planet, our goals, our promises, our challenges, the people we choose to love, and those we choose to share time and life’s adventures with.

It has been amazing the many ways this concept has shown up over the year!

All the goosepimple, laughing, crying, incredibly joyful and painful dialog and changes that have been born from continuing forward in the direction of “showing up” for the things and people most important to us…and the changes precipitated by choosing to hold firm to this ideal, its gifts and its responsibilities.

On the physical plane, what’s new is: we not only finished the dramatic short “Dragon” and began getting it out into the world, we also got contracted to create a travel short featuring the Big Island and 3 other unique places, of which our artist sanctuary got to be one! (Big smile!) It’s been so fun collaborating with other budding and eclectic filmmakers, singer/songwriters, etc…a particular highlight being Anna from the U.K. and I creating/recording a chant as soundtrack for the film up in the library!

Meanwhile, maintenance on the old homestead continues (thanks for sharing a crazy working-&-laughing in the rain adventure goes out to another musician, Corrine!)

In terms of community, starting with the holidays last year, I am delighted to say we’ve been busier this year, with more full house times than any other in our herstory so far (yea!) We’ve also begun creatively fashioning & utilizing country-quirky office/work/art studio space here…and are trying a new concept of mid-to-longer length visitors being able to “hire out” their share of Care Projects and household purchases, if they prefer. Though most folks still choose full participation in the cooperative experience, the option has worked out well for those with ability limitations or those with super busy schedules who still want support the sanctuary, so it’s a new thing we’ll most likely continue.

And…how has YOUR year been?!!!!

Warm aloha to all…and HAU’OLI (happy, happy) Next New Year right around the corner!

May beautiful gifts show up at your door…and may you enjoy the wellspring inherent in deep commitment to what you most cherish.

Manifesting Dreams Coming True

Many years ago, a favorite activity was attending creative conferences and music festivals held somewhere in glorious, wild Nature, a selection of which went on for a good week or at least a full weekend long. 

Sometimes these involved "work," i.e. being invited to share one's unique gifts with the world there. Other times it was pure R&R vacation solo, with friends, or beloveds.

Besides days and nights spent out under a vast sky dancing or singing along with awesome, often newly-discovered musicians, there were also tented crafts fairs, rustic cabin writerly group readings, and sometimes swimming holes, rivers, or pools nearby to immerse in with friends and friendly strangers alike.

The creative retreats, with their attendance being somewhat smaller, often provided better food ... but the large music festivals -- especially those aimed exclusively for women and young children -- often had outdoor showers and the ability to roam through fields and woods topless (if not bottomless as well).

Where else in the world can women safely be au natural in the great outdoors?

The feelings of freedom this engendered!

The camaraderie ... the peace!

Gosh, now THIS is living! those who participated often thought at the time. The whole world should be like this!!

Cut to years later, when -- after researching quite a number of living-on-the-land opportunities -- Kulana's Founder went on to create her own racially (and otherwise) diverse version of the experience on the Big Island of Hawaii. 

(See photo-illustrated book DOING INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY: Expanded 2023 Edition if you want to know more about that! Color print version: https://www.lulu.com/shop/cristina-salat/doing-intentional-community-color/paperback/product-qrjv8p.html; e-version: https://books2read.com/u/breABE)

Now there are many ways to "do" Hawaii...

One certainly can immerse in hotels, condos, timeshares, resorts, tourist packages, and the like.

Kulana's goal was different:

Freedom ... camaraderie ... peace ...

Time to do whatever one had actually come to Planet Earth to do, while living amongst and sharing an appreciation for Nature at its unconquered best.

Which is where we learned to live the "kulana" principle towards practicing manifestation of "joy from within," no matter what else happened to be going on in the world.

In fact, eventually here at Kulana, we even custom-created a journal for humanly-spiritually working on this process, in the form of 236 beautiful blank pages accompanied by 13 months of quotes and images taken from our adventures building this magical, mystical, eco-friendly, artistic-spiritual community (... along with honing our more joyous, self-actualized selves!)

https://www.amazon.com/Kulana-Joy-Journal-Practicing-Goddess/dp/1689429836

Description: A color photo-illustrated journal for practicing the art of living joyously via the Hawaiian principle of "kulana" (manifesting happiness from within), with plenty of room for your own daily musings, intentions, drawings, and joyful manifestations. 

Months are not pre-labeled, so writing in the Kulana Joy Journal can begin anytime.

Best of all, while this journal we made is supporting you, by purchasing it you are also supporting us ... and as we all know, what is supported is what continues to exist.

So, a lovely win-win. :)  

Thank you so much!

https://www.amazon.com/Kulana-Joy-Journal-Practicing-Goddess/dp/1689429836

Join us in spirit,

as the process

of making

your OWN dreams

come true,

unfolds! :)

Whatever you're here on this planet to do is as -- if not more -- important now, than ever.

Global Group Meditation -- FREE!

Project Park Bench

Free Worldwide Co-Creative Meditation

every 2nd & 4th Sunday

11 AM PDT/2 PM EDT U.S.A. Timezone

beginning Sunday, July 14th

Sign up to receive free email reminders:

https://projectparkbench.com/

Here's how the organizer describes it:

"We've been asked by the Teachers of Light to end our pause and gather again. It's been requested that we take the next step together now and anchor the landscape, environment, and architecture of the new realm.  It's time we focus on what is possible and create a world of wellbeing and respect. Together.

WE'RE STEPPING OFF THE 3-D GAME BOARD

INTO WELLBEING

This is not a teaching of Truth (capital T). It is a focused alignment from the heart to hold an intention from a place of wellbeing, peace, and ease.

Today many are looking for a way to contribute, participate, and remember what they already know but may have forgotten.

Home.

It's time to return to the Park Bench.

(Or to the rock or log or wherever you like to quietly sit)."

https://projectparkbench.com/

We'll be there.

Hope you will too! :)

Community Here, There, & EVERYWHERE: An Excerpt from What We've Learned

(https://www.redbubble.com/i/notebook/DREAM-A-NEW-WORLD-by-LiveVolcano/160026555.WX3NH?asc=u)

So, you know that besides exploring various in-person versions of intentional community we also co-created/compiled a book of words & images to encapsulate what we learned along the way right?

These adventures in co-creating a shared live/work/mystical environment from the early years on up through more recently were set down in the photo-illustrated "DOING INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY: Expanded 2023 Update."

In this day & age when the idea of "community" has grown to encompass kindred spirits globally via a variety of technological means, there's also significant value to be found in savoring experiences IRL (In Real Life).

Here's a little paraphrased taste from our IRL "community living" project:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/doing-intentional-community-cristina-salat/1143737977

Available in color print, ebook, + b/w paperback editions

"I am so blessed to have met you and shared so many wonderful memories, ideas, and meals. The kindness you offer and your vision here have the power to change lives and the world. I go into my next life cycle with a lovely, clear, refreshed mind and joyous, nurtured heart thanks to you and this wonderful fruit of your dream time."

Christina, teacher, painter, drama coach 

Every location has its own flavor, which will impact the kinds of experiences that can be enjoyed &/or grown from there.

Here, on the Big Island of Hawaii, there is a layer of ice that never melts on top of Mauna Kea, one of our locale's five volcanoes, which may have formed, scientists theorize, back in the Pleistocene era.

On Kilauea — the most currently active volcano — startled humans often describe the appearance of Goddess Pele as either a young, mysterious woman or older, crone-like figure who materializes into view...and then disappears in the blink of an eye; sometimes with a specific message to impart; other times not.

Mystical lights and other unexplained phenomena also occur on this island regularly.

When the "Kulana" (joy-from-within) community first birthed in this magical, mystical place, the fact that vehicle electrical systems would for no apparent reason just shut down out of the blue when driving up Saddle Road was well-known. In fact, car rental companies at that time forbid their rented vehicles from traversing this road, theoretically because back then all of it was not yet paved...(though rented cars were allowed in other areas which were also not yet paved).

Additionally, there were reports of people in cars being rocked in a way that felt different from wind gusts, and folks seeing things moved from one place to another without any human hands involved.

These days you don't hear about so many mysterious happenings on Saddle Road, though reports of Night Marcher spottings around ancient heiau sites continue.

Yes, the Big Island of Hawaii, home to much magic, is quite an interesting place to live. 

Gorgeous in many places...even "paradise" in some ways, and for some people. 

But also there are underlying realities — some mystical, some more socio-political — that most people arriving to take advantage of time in paradise don't realize.

Now, each of the Hawaiian islands has its own energy...with Kauai being the oldest, most "stable," smaller-sized island in the chain...Maui being mid-size and more developed...Molokai being tiny and the most reminiscent of what old-time Hawaii used to be (only 1 traffic light, last we heard!)...Oahu, with the city of Honolulu, being more urbane...and the Big Island being the largest and most energetically volatile location in the chain, what with being home to an active volcano & all.

How we chose to cope:

Here at our little version of "community," we instituted smoke/drug/alcohol/drama-FREE guidelines right in our first year. However, no amount of good boundaries and avoidance can really dilute the intensity of the red molten energy that's here, which may be par for the course when you choose to live on an active volcano (!).

And seeing the destructive/creative force & flow of new earth/new possibilities/new realities being born is incredible...

Beautiful to behold, but also it is an energy that's not always particularly easy to live with and be immersed in or around full-time...though that's not something which necessarily affects anyone all that much if they are just here for a few weeks of vacation.

What those of us who've spent significant time in this locale noticed is: whatever qualities, quirks, flaws, emotions, or baggage someone came to this particular island with, over time (and sometimes it did not take very long!) those qualities and emotions tended to intensify.

This meant: if you came here ready to create, your creativity was likely to EXPLODE.

I watched (& personally experienced) whole soundtracks being born in a day...!

Yet as the Founder of Kulana, I & subsequent stewards-in-my-stead also saw the qualities of procrastination, disorganization, insecurity, fear, and ineptness take hold, bringing occasional misery to the reflector of those qualities...and everyone else with whom they needed to interact.

I watched people come to this location intending to bike everywhere around an island where the elevation ranges from sea level to 14,000 feet, when they hadn't even biked around the block back where they lived...and saw them receive a rude awakening around their ability to achieve this goal.

I saw people assume they would be able to quit smoking and drinking alcohol instantaneously, just because they chose to arrange time at a sacred substance-use-free space...and fail to do so.

I read with disbelief hastily scrawled notes from people in whom much time had been invested, as they darted off to what seemed to them a better or easier opportunity...without honoring their commitments...without even saying goodbye.

I watched people with no financial resources arrive in a locale where things likely cost more than where they'd come from, assuming somehow money, food, transportation & whatever else they might need would just magically appear...or that someone else out of the various nice people they'd just met would be willing to pick up their costs.

I consoled those who chose to get on a bus without bothering to look at a bus schedule...which, at that time, offered island-style service infrequently enough that this person wound up having to walk many angry miles back to the sanctuary.

I listened to people whose rich histories of relationships-gone-wrong were immediately followed by a wish to exercise their kundalini prowess and join forces with a next new beloved here in the tropics, where surely (they believed) things would work out differently. 

Then again, I also witnessed publishable novels taking shape in a year...

And the putting together of enough new paintings for a longed-for professional gallery show within a concentrated stretch of only six weeks.

And witnessed impossible-seeming problems, healed.

"Yeah!! Kulana Joy Within!! Thank you for your giving heart and your kindness. Kulana was perfect for me at just the perfect time. It's been a time of learning, great creativity, spiritual learning, and healing. I have always wanted to come here and here I am! Kulana will always be in my heart."

Michelle, playwrite, comic, teacher 

Want to hear more about our adventures firsthand?

Read: "DOING INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY: Expanded 2023 Update"

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/doing-intentional-community-cristina-salat/1143737977

(Available in color print, ebook, + b/w paperback editions)

OR

— especially if you happen to be forming

some sort of community

or mini-retreat center yourself — 

reach out to connect directly

with Kulana's original Founder

via the SIDEBAR BUTTON on this site! :)

(How connecting this way works: Signing up is quick, free, & you only have to do it once. Then we can chat for as briefly or as long as you like anytime that's available. $5 credit applied to first-timers. Charges only apply once chat begins.)

 

Where Are My Peeps?!

  

Well, well...here's something NEW!

For ages, folks in various circles have been asking for an easy & quick (or expanded/expansive) way to further connect on:

* how to co-create enjoyable, win-win relationships of every kind, even when not every aspect of Life is mutually agreed upon (along with knowing when it's time to let go!) ... 

* how to manifest (or harmoniously sustain) a large or small artistic/health-&-wellness retreat center ... 

* how to apply metaphysics to human, 3-D experiences ... 

* along with how best to navigate these unusual times on Planet Earth! 

Kindred Spirits ... Interaction ... Answers!

As the Founder of Kulana's mini "intentional community" creative/spiritual retreat (which later morphed into a private women's mystery school) -- with all the relationship-building, guidance, boundary-setting, friendships, & magic that entailed -- I've intimately explored the ins & outs of human connection for many years now. 

There can be distinctly different eras, including quiet plateaus; especially these days! 

One year, we even wrote a book about it. ;)

Do you find yourself earnestly seeking your soul kin, soul mate, soul friends, or true soul tribe?

Yearning for authentic relationships where problems get solved, & relationships generally feel "win-win" good??

Let's talk.

I've lived all these realities & more ... and am delighted to have discovered a way to practically & metaphysically address whatever questions anyone near or far might have via a new streamlined way to interact, now that dialoging with interesting strangers that land in our living room isn't what we're doing!

Happy to connect whenever I'm online & available.  :) 

Or we can schedule a specific time: https://premium.chat/TropicalCreatrix/278784

Looking forward to embarking on conversational adventures, large & small, regarding this topic which is so vital to humanity especially through times of global upheaval & change.

(Here's how it works: sign-up is quick, free, & you only have to do it once ... then you're on my chat page, it's a per-minute charge once we start chatting, & we can interact for as short or as long as you like.)

https://premium.chat/TropicalCreatrix/278784

"Creativity is the language we use to communicate
the urgency of our dreams for a better future."

Audre Lorde