GardenSong Players
Aloha, I AM Saleena Ki,
Gardeness & Co-Creator of GardenSong Project
Over the years, in each of my GardenSongs, I have co-created with the most wonderful beings. You will hear me mention certain names in my stories. Each one is a unique and wonderful being. I love them all. They enliven and enrich my life. I am grateful for their gifts.
Here are a few of my FAVORITE PLAYERS on stage with me,
characters in my GardenSong Adventure Stories
GardenSong2 Booneville Motherland Players
Handy Hugh
It was Handy Hugh who first suggested that I create a Vibrakey to help people consciously co-create with Nature. He was known as the COMPOST KING in GardenSong1 Hawaii and first introduced me to the “little people” who helped there. He still helps with composting here and other tough jobs like chasing Butterflies to get photos, celebrating and documenting a new Butterfly species when one shows up, (we were up to 60+ as the 2016 season ended), creating maps of all our Gardens and Areas, starting to gather data for making our own Herbarium, and tougher jobs like mixing soil mixes for grow boxes and helping me haul giant stones to anchor in energies here in GardenSong2 Booneville. He has planted 100s of TREES, too. He also believes in me and champions me. That means a lot to me. He is a wonder with his hands and intuition, soothing and opening blocked channels in my body when I work it too hard.
Handy Hugh is c0-creator with his twin sister, Nell, of the Pollinator Habitat and Land Steward for our Booneville Motherland. I appreciate him TONS! He is also a wonderful visionary for our GardenSong Project and our Motherland. Our domain is improving and growing because of his ideas and efforts, becoming a champion for our Pollinators and other important small beings who live here. It warms my heart to witness him falling more & more in love with his Motherland. He is an EARTH GRID expert and we find ourselves being impulsed to clean up along these “DRAGONLINES”, doing whatever comes to us to strengthen them, like building a little Dragon Stonehenge in the Cedar Glade, right where our Dragonline runs through.
Reflective Thought: These may be some of the most important “jobs” on Mother Earth right now.
Catalyst
She is a CAT that came to GardenSong at a time when I didn’t want a CAT. No matter what I did, she would not go away. She hung in there until I softened and opened my heart to her. She was starving and determined. I had just decided to give in and started feeding her. Shortly after that she was attacked by a pack of neighborhood dogs and almost killed. I saw her lying under the porch. I thought she was dead. I grieved, I was angry at the dogs, at the neighbors that let them roam free. Hours later, much to my surprise and relief, she suddenly resurrected and after a trip to the vet to sew up her belly and time to recover, we are now GardenSong2 Companions. Her name Catalyst came about because she was the catalyst that catalyzed the events that lead to the removal of that dangerous pack of dogs. Maybe she catalyzes more…
Catalyst is a beautiful CAT! She isn’t a cuddly CAT. She has been too traumatized to relax. She is touchy about her back and leg where the dogs had her in their mouths. She is always alert, looking around for danger, and insatiably hungry! Most of the time she is more like a WILD CAT, especially if I try to pick her up. I have wounds to show for it. She follows me around when working and playing in the Gardens and just sits close. The minute I create something new, she is sitting in or on it. She just likes my company and occasionally forgets her trauma and is friendly. The most awesome time we have is BELLY TIME. Whenever she sees me, over she goes, as I am saying, “Where’s that BIG BELLY?” She is a BIG CAT so she has plenty of belly to rub. Though only for a minute, then she is done and alert and looking around again.
Reflective Thought: A friend suggested that she is a GATE KEEPER from Sirius. You can read more about that story HERE. When I created the Lion’s Gate Garden Bench she was immediately sitting there as if she owned it. If you are open and curious about the possibility that some CATS and DOGS might be more than random animals wandering about on EARTH, check this article out: Cats & Dogs – Who Are They Really???
Momsy
MOMSY, also known as Shirley Shurtz, is my Mom. My Momsy has been my NATURE MUSE and INSPIRATION my whole life. I learned to love NATURE from her and that I can communicate with it directly and it will respond. I witnessed her talking to a BIRD, asking it to come land on her knee and it did! I watched her disappear a cloud using LOVE. She is a BIG HEARTED talented CREATIVE ARTIST who loves sharing her ART with all. Check out her ShirleyBirds Gallery. She helped co-create the first magical GARDENS & FLOWERS where I grew up in SLC, Utah, where I wandered about learning about NATURE as a kid. Her gardens have always been full of FLOWERS, lots of MAGICAL FEATURES and tons of BEAUTY. She created the BELF GARDEN here at GardenSong on her first visit in 2015 before she even knew she was moving here. The photo is the beginning of her garden.
I’m lucky, due to a whole bunch of synchronicities (and we know my Dad was helping from wherever he is off planet), she moved to Booneville in 2016 and is nested in the arms of our Booneville Motherland and now resides only 270 steps from my front door and GardenSong. Our brother, Randy, recognized the spirit of her home and land as BaileHaven. She brings talent, creativity, curiosity and wonder alive for me everyday just being Momsy.
Reflective Thought: She wrote me a poem, “Who is Nature’s Child?”, when I was only 20, that touched me so deeply with her knowings and insights about me. She was right on!
Valentine
On Valentine’s Day 2017 a new kitten arrived in GardenSong. Just showed up at our Flower Porch. A little black and white kitten with a funny long nose. For some reason I just knew it was staying. I had lost my resistance to having an animal to take care of. It wasn’t like that with Catalyst, she was one unfriendly CAT! Growling, hissing, sulking, pouting. This was her domain!
The kitten became VALENTINE. She is a total opposite of Catalyst, who is pensive, alert, grumpy, selective slow and tolerates touch at her whim. Valentine is FUN, patient, grounded, friendly, adorable and loves to be held. CURIOSITY, in fact “IN-SATIABLE CURTIOSITY” is Valentine’s mode. He pokes his nose into everything I am doing. Follows me 
and Momsy around and watches everything. I don’t know what gender this cat is yet. It remains a mystery to me so far.
Valentine looks to Catalyst as the Mama-Teacher much to Catalyst chagrin. Now Valentine is flopping over on her back to get a belly rub, just like Catalyst. So Valentine is our newest player here at GardenSong2 Booneville. Here she just plopped into the Violets and snuggled in…. ahhhhhh….
Reflective Thought: Where did this tiny little cat come from? Wherever it is, I am glad.
More GardenSong Cats-Cristina-Maya-Tonto-Star Cat/Wish Cat
GardenSong1 Hawaii Players
Merlyn Mahalo
I first met MERLYN in 1996 in Sedona, Arizona, where he had been the one and only organic farmer for 25 years. At the time he was known as James Eddy, and we both were living in our vans in the wildness surrounding Sedona, reveling in the AWESOME BEAUTY & POWER of NATURE among the RED ROCKS & SANDS of that power place.
He lead the way to Hawaii in 1999 and I followed.
I lived there for 12 years, mostly on the Big Island, and we swam with the WILD SPINNER DOLPHINS together many times. He is still there.
Merlyn is a Master Alchemical Gardener/Wizard who has inspired me over and over with what one with determination can do with almost impossible situations.
H
e was living in our community house in Hawaii, creating the most amazing Paradiasical Gardens before the GardenSong Project was dreamed in. In fact, his gardens still inspire me in what I do today! He took raw volcanic lava soil and built terraces and encouraged plants to grow where only the hardiest natives or invasives could. The woods to the side of our house were transformed into Flowering Tunnels, pathways and terraced Gardens as the years flew by. Eventually, he and his Beloved moved into the Woods, where they slept in their tent Temple.
He was there when we set up the first GardenSong1. He helped set the intentions and his gardens were included in our Garden of Atema. We designed our Gardens side by side.
Today, 2016, he is living 4000 feet above sea level, still on the Big Island of Hawaii. In a place of deslolate stunning beauty, completely off the grid, on sloping lava fields of an active Volcano, he has coaxed life where there was very little. I was astonished to see his GARDENS there. Like I said, Master Alchemist Gardener/Wizard!
02-2017 UPDATE: Merlyn just moved into a new CONDO in Captain Cook, and is already beginning his GARDEN there. I can’t wait to see what he creates next.
Reflective Thought: Merlyn embodies GREENMAN to me. He is all HEART. We have been friends through life-times.