Tending Altars: An Introduction
A devotion to life as an altar and the journey of tending to it.
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Hello, dear reader.
Some could consider this an effort towards a New Year resolution, and perhaps in a way it is. More than that, I am exploring this fresh space as an exhausted Instagram user, a small business owner lacking clarity, a creative bobbing in the dark, liminal space of one project and the unknown next. Writing is my communication style of choice and where I best feel able to express the true intention and completeness of my thoughts. Unhurried. Spacious. My only witness my Self until I decide to hit “publish”. It is here where I hope to show up — dedicated only to consistency, embracing imperfection — to share with you my world of internal musings and inspirations pertaining to, but not limited to:
la vita lenta (the slow life)
personal talismans, symbology and sources of belonging
kitchen table culture
and ancestral connection.
Who am I?
Sprouted in Northern California, now replanted and well rooted on Hawai'i Island, I am a lifelong art maker, nature lover, relic worshipper and adornment enthusiast. My inspiration blooms from the places I call home (including my mixed-heritage, mostly European ancestral lands, especially Italy), from the practice of everyday personal rituals, and my experience of just being in the world while in pursuit of enjoying beauty in all things.
Since 2016, I have been the keeper of a creative project/living art piece/micro business I call Hina Luna. It has evolved through many iterations over the years — plant dyed textiles, block printed garments, illustrated lunar calendars, zines, curated treasures from independent small makers, and so on. Currently, after opening and then suddenly closing my first brick and mortar in the winter of 2022, I find myself at a creative crossroads. I am resting, waiting, and dreaming up what the next phase of Hina Luna is to become, and I will elaborate on that journey with you here. These days I am lit up by the magic of the everyday and find my creativity expressing itself through the creation of my home spaces and planning intentional small gatherings and dinner parties. Spaces to inspire, to offer beauty, and cultivate connection.
A big part of who I am is the result of reweaving the threads that is the tapestry of my own ancestry. Reconnecting to the people who came before me and the lands they hail from has become a guiding light along my journey as both a creative and as a human, and has also supported me in fostering a connection to the island I have the privilege of calling home.
On that note, I will be writing to you from my little northern corner of Hawai’i Island where I live rurally with my husband, our three black cats and a small herd of goats. They may show up on occasion here as well.
Tending Altars
Through Hina Luna, I have spent years creating and exploring the conceptual bridges between body, altar and home. These three words have become a triangular set of foundational pillars to my creative work, my connections with ancestry, and my life in a holistic picture.
My body is an altar. My home is an altar. An altar is a home.
Places of our devotion, where offerings of love are made: bodies, homes, kitchen tables, natural spaces…
If I were to sum up my role as a human on earth it would be that of Altar Tender. And thus, the collection of writings I share with you here are inspired by the breadth of my experiences tending to life’s altars.
The Ultimate Goal: Creating Community
Living in a small town, exploring my ancestry, and sharing my work as a creative has offered me places of belonging, sources of connection, and the value of community building. To my surprise, in tending to Hina Luna in mostly online spaces over the years, I have also found community through the ethers. And that is what I hope to continue to foster here, but with deeper and more authentic connection than other platforms are currently offering.
It is my hope to connect with readers and writers who value the beauty of slow living, quality made, purposeful things, the art of adornment for both home and body, simple pleasures, the enriching experience of travel, living gently on and in reciprocity with the land you call home, and last but most certainly not least: the joy of good food.
What You Can Expect
The creation of this space is starting as an invitation to myself to answer the call to write more. I am offering myself a place to show up consistently, imperfectly, authentically, and without a need to be “on brand”. While this writing space is connected to my ongoing creative work of Hina Luna, more so you will be witnessing me as the dreaming human behind the veil.
I am eager to share in this space with you, to feel the walls of how to exist here, and to find my ways to explore beyond them. I hope you will join me.
Truly, Haley