if everyone’s thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking

This quote is by Pāpā Hōri Patton, from up the road. Let it simmer for a little. It comes at the end of a moon cycle’s worth of wānanga (deliberation) about kai (food) in all its forms. from physical nourishment, to mind food and soul-food to breaking down the intricacies of everything that happens in between and everything we miss out on when we miss out any of the steps required — as our fascination with convenience and productivity consumes us.

Not all of us. But many of us are caught in that loop.

I doubt this will be the end of our kōrero (discussion) on this topic because only in this wānanga did I wake up to how much mātauranga (knowledge/knowing) I’m missing out on because of how much of the process I’m disengaged from. and also for how much of it just ‘theory’ for me. Theory has its place, c’mon, but when we’re talking about getting to know atua (gods, elemental forces, metaphysical beings) and them knowing us

— theory only takes our connection so deep.

Heoi, kua timu te tai, kua pari anō te tai — the tides have changed, the moon is in Whiro, which means a change of topic.

That analogy too subtle? Lol we’re phasing out of kai and into wai (water), following the atua hierarchy of how we can survive for weeks without food, days without water, minutes without air and no time at all without light and what this means about how we can engage with atua to achieve optimal health and wellness i.e. live. our. best. lives.

Jussssst one last thing, we’re not compartmentalising atua and limiting them to their domains because they’re all interconnected and present across the different realms. Tangaroa, Hinemoana, Parawhenuamea and Maru come to mind as atua of the oceans and freshwater, then you’ve got different expressions of water as steam, rain, mist, clouds, vapour, geysers, waiariki and the list of atua goes on and on! But just remember, they are not operating or living in isolation from the other elements. Ok? Cool.

So we can only live for days without water, why is that?

The main reason is due to toxic build up in our tinana (bodies). Water helps our organs do their thing and flush those toxins out, so if we don’t hydrate - the whole system shuts down. Great.

In terms of the function water plays in te ao Māori, with rites and rituals, restoring ‘noa’, to cleanse, to bathe, to heal, to cook and not to mention our main means of travel from one destination to another! Then there’s also whakairo (carving) whose origins can be traced back to Tangaroa as well. Love it Hana, but what does any of this have to do with the title of this post?”

Something the kai theme brought to my awareness over the last cycle is

how we’ve come to live in an echo chamber,

or a bubble where we expose ourselves to people, events and situations that reaffirm what we already believe and what we do not. We’ve diverted the flow of information, attention and energy to bypass what we’ve deemed unnecessary and directly to the puna (pools) we choose.

I advocate for this 100%. I’m all for ‘creating the environment’ that helps you help yourself, that helps you get the most out of you. HOWEVER..

We run the risk of assuming our reality; what we experience, what we see, what/who we’re exposed to etc. is also what others experience as reality also, when this isn’t the case. Our experiences are subjective and tailored to us.

So just like when water stays in the same place for too long, it goes off, if we stay in the same place too long, thinking the same thoughts as everyone around us, or not ever evolving that thinking

— we’ll stagnate as well.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that and so have started to explore how I can expose myself to new thinking, to wading in the water of different whakaaro (thoughts/ideas) once in a while, or drinking from a foreign spring to nourish my spirit in different ways.

To keep that water flowing healthily. To expand and extend my thinking, ko te hiringa i te mahara kia ita, kia mau.

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.