a floral interlude... from berkeley

Reflections from the 7 day street retreat

Protein on the Streets

Pork, Beef, Chicken and Sometimes Fish

The first few days I felt like a piece of meat

Raw, tender

Sexual slab of nourishment for

Lonely, hungry men

Men with groping eyes and gummy, toothless pick-up lines.

Pork pork pork

The sign on the way to Martin’s

“Eat here”

And a picture of a bubble-gum pink pig

Licking his lips

Despair—when pigs fly—end of homelessness, poverty

Pork pork pork

Feral pigs of wild moutaineous Hawaii

Almost mythical, huge beasts

Clawing, animal

Frantic, forced by flooding from the mountain

Seeking shelter

Unwelcome

Killed in Michael’s backyard to protect his family, his property.

Pigs, wild looking for shelter.

Pork meat pork meat pork meat

Meat pork meat

Pork beef chicken and sometimes fish

Cows: gentle, doe-eyed female

Pumped full of drugs

Milk-producing baby machines.

Cows gentle

Herded along

Move along, move along

Cows bonding as a herd

Like the chaos of a foodline

Together in our waiting

Together in our hunger

Chatting or quiet

Standing together

Cows together cows together cows together

Together cows together

Pork beef chicken and sometimes fish

Chickens screechy and fierce

Squawking and broody on the street

On my way home from church

In Honolulu

On the streets of San Francisco

Walk tough, don’t be a chicken

Fear…

That woman next to me is scratching again.

I hope I don’t get her mat tomorrow night.

I sleep anyway.

There sure are a lot of men hanging out on that street.

I hope they don’t stop me, don’t come onto me.

I walk down the street anyway.

That’s a nasty cough.

I hope it’s not contagious.

I breathe anyway.

Chickenfear

Natural and sometimes useless response.

Chicken fear chicken fear

Fear chicken fear

Pork beef chicken and sometimes fish

Two weeks ago in a sudden burst of poetic insight

A friend,

“Air to birds

water to fish

love to humans”.

Puckering fish, lippy kisses of lovers

Drunken slurpy kisses on the streets

Or caring for a friend

Sharing food, sharing clothes with strangers

Love is what we live in

Air to birds

Water to fish

Love to humans

Fish love fish love

Love fish love

Pork beef chicken and sometimes fish

Meat meat meat

2 scoops of couscous at St. Anthony’s

A mountain of drippy stewed vegetables

At the shelter.

More peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread.

Life on the streets without meat.

I take the love, fear, togetherness, meat.

Raw, whole slabs of time on the streets

You gotta get your protein somehow.

new photos are up

I just posted some more photos... these might be just about the last batch from the Hawaiian adventure. These ones are from the parade from Chinese New Year and a few other things including how I celebrated Valentines Day. http://www.flickr.com/photos/95933887@N00/

Electric Beach

Today Mike took me snorkelling. We went first to Hanauma Bay, but the jellyfish were out so we tried somewhere else.

On the other side of the island, on the Waianae Coast we went to a place called Electric Beach. It is a little beach just across the highway from a big electricity plant. The plant uses water to cool its system. The heated water is released into the ocean, creating warm currents. Fish and turtles and other sea life come to play in the warm water and the currents. And locals and come to snorkel and scuba dive.

I've been snorkelling once before at Hanauma Bay with my father. And that was amazing. It blew me away. And today was so much more!

There was a school of fish like the ones above, just hanging out. I somehow thought if you swam among a school of fish they would flit by you as quick as anything. But no, they hang out, just out of reach.

These images are not mine, but this is some of what I saw.

And there was more. So much more.

I saw my first, second and third sea turtle today, playing in the warm currents. I even spotted a purple octopus, hiding in a hole. Mike went and played with it for a bit, trying to get it to come out of the hole. It looked big. Maybe as much as 4 feet in diameter had it stretched out for us!

Then there was beautiful coral and sea urchins too. My favourite sea urchins were the slate pencil sea urchins in the picture. I know I have seen underwater photography on TV before, but that just doesn't do it justice. It's so amazing to have it all right there with you, in front of you, under you as you float overhead.

Then there was beautiful coral and sea urchins too. My favourite sea urchins were the slate pencil sea urchins in the picture. I know I have seen underwater photography on TV before, but that just doesn't do it justice. It's so amazing to have it all right there with you, in front of you, under you as you float overhead.

I foresee more snorkelling my near future, before I leave beautiful Hawaii.

beginning of the end

People have started saying their goodbyes. I preached on Sunday, my last sermon here, and received 2 leis from the congregation. One was brilliant fushia orchids. The other was fragrant tuber-roses and carnations.

On Sunday night a member of the congregation took me for a picnic dinner with her family. We all piled into the car and went to Kakaako Waterfront Park. She made a lovely loaf of bread for the occasion and we ate simple food. Kakaako Park is right behind the medical school and even though I'd been by there many times before I'd never actually been there.

The park is one of those reclaimed garbage dumps. When the landfill gets full they cover it with grass and make a park. This is a nice one. Gentle rolling hills/heaps. There is a nice area to walk down at the water. No beach but a great place to watch the sunset, and fisherman and boats coming in and out of the harbour. It was quiet and still busy. I like finding those places in a city. And as we stood in the gathering dark overlooking the bright lights of Waikiki, it once again felt foreign to me.

When I first moved here I woke up for the first few months surprised I was living here. And often I would get a quick jolt of surprise hearing people on the street speaking English. It was foreign here and I guess I didn't expect to hear English. Well I haven't had that feeling for months. I guess I have gotten used to it more or less. Used to the humidity. Used to wearing sandals everyday. Used to the sunshine and the beautiful sparkling ocean. Used to the rain clouds rolling over the green mountains. Used to rainbows even. Used to the gentle, slow ways of the people here. But never the evil monster cockroaches. I will never get used to them.

It was welcome to once again feel foreign, to once again feel there is so much more to this place than I have seen and heard and experienced. And at the same time I am looking forward to whatever is coming next.

Look who I ran into around the corner from my house...

Rain or Shine?

OR

I can't believe I have only 6 more weeks in Paradise. The time has flown by and dragged by. How does time manage to do that?

Last week I was in Vancouver 10 days of winter. Snow and cold and dreary rain. Ah, Vancouver winter. And now I am back to glorious warm sun. Maybe later I will go to the beach.

But the funny thing is, it was hard to come back. I want to go back to Vancouver. To get on with my life there. To start building a new life. I am anxious to finish this pause in my life. It has been a great pause, with much to learn and many great people to meet and a lot of sunshine and beautiful flowers. And I am ready to go home to dreary Vancouver, rain and all.