So disconnected from Rongo, I can’t even hear myself think

New cycle, new theme.. back to the old kaupapa that is the #atuablogseries.  We’ve had a few months off writing about other things, exploring other streams of thought, but to be honest, this was forced.. kind of.. It got to the point where I didn’t know enough about particular atua to do justice to them (not that I think I ever could), or at least offer whakaaro (ideas) about them that provoked thought.

To align with wānanga I’ve been having, in addition to making time to be still and think (or not think lol) and also the Āio Clothing launch this week..

Rongomātāne/Rongomaraeroa the atua of peace and cultivation seemed perfect.

Here’s some initial whakaaro about Rongo, to start us off..I’ve been pretty busy over the last few months, with travel, with mahi, with kaupapa.. been making 1mm of progress in 1000 different directions. And when I think of Rongo - which also means to hear, to listen, to feel, to sense.. my ‘busyness’ has got in the way of me being able to hear, listen, feel and sense my own self…

Hindsight is a beautiful thing and those observations are obvious now…  maybe they always have been, but I ignored and numbed myself to the feeling I get when I haven’t been in the taiao (environment) in a while, or when I don’t do the things I need to look after myself because ‘the mahi (work) needs to be done.’

While that’s true and something I live by, ‘not all mahi is important mahi’ should follow soon after that initial sentence, and it’s become a whole lot clearer to me that I busy myself to keep me distracted from what I’m supposed to be doing, what I’m meant to be doing, what I really want to be doing.

No wonder why I’ve been in a state of dis-ease and discomfort! I’m not even engaging with the tupuna (ancestor) that embodies those characteristics of āio, of balance, of peace and alignment… but awareness is there nonetheless and now, better late than never,

so is action.

Action to engage with any tupuna Rongo more frequently, which requires me to quieten my mind and external world, to be still. So that in the quiet, ka rongo pea au i a au anō, I might attune myself to my own frequency and hear myself think.

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.