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Joshin and I spent the last few weeks of 2022 in the beautiful deserts of California. We saw huge mountain ranges and open space filled here and there by Joshua trees, ocotillos, many kinds of chollas, and a lot of creosote bushes.
Big black ravens, cactus wrens, finches, sparrows, hawks and acorn woodpeckers (lower elevation) were a delight to see. A black-tailed jackrabbit was relaxed yet alert walking about sharing the day with us.
Yucca Valley and Borrego Springs are both international dark sky communities that promote responsible lighting and dark sky stewardship. I was thrilled to be able to see the night sky from our bedroom and outside!
In Yucca Valley, we saw a bit of the Geminid meteor shower – some ten to fifteen shooting stars in the early morning just before dawn. At the Anza- Borrego Desert State Park, I learned how to read a sky map and saw planets and stars for the first time in a long time. Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, Polaris and the Small Dipper, bits of the Milky Way, the Pleiades, Pegasus, Deneb, Vega, Altair and more!
We arrived home several days ago and today is New Year’s Eve – a time to clean and cook for the New Year! Julie Kase and I are making a Japanese lunch for tomorrow’s Sunday Morning Zen. On the menu are my mother’s recipe for nishime – root vegetable stew - and sekihan – rice with azuki beans.
This is what I used to make for our family's big New Year’s Day potluck in my parents’ Kukaiau home. I remember those days well. A neighbor, Mr. Kato, would always bring an onaga - big red snapper - he had caught. It would be steamed with ginger, green onions, special sauces and wrapped in ti leaf. Dad would make rolls and rolls of sushi. Ma would make the namasu – pickled cucumbers – and ho’io (fern shoot, tomato and onion) salad.
My middle brother Robert would bring his home-smoked meat – wild pig – and raw opihi he had gathered marinated in shoyu, garlic and a little hot chili peppers. My oldest and youngest brothers and their families would laden the table with Korean-fried chicken, spareribs, sweet potatoes, macaroni salad, green and red jello, and blueberry cream cheese pie.
It was a beautiful feast of food and warm aloha of family that set the stage for a good New Year. So I look forward to seeing you tomorrow and in the coming year. May this new year be a beautiful one for all of us!
Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),
June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue
Kumu Hula, Roshi
P.S. Here's a talk I gave in early December at Sunday Morning Zen entitled, "Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World" https://youtu.be/Dx6qXIztSE8
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