what is it in a seed that when planted in isolated darkness — it becomes undone and reaches for the light?
What a fun couple of cycles, working our way through the sequence of how we can live for weeks without food, days without water, minutes without air.. and by fun I mean the growth on growth kind you tell yourself to convince yourself ‘this is all part of the plan, the universe experiencing itself, let’s frikn’ go ! Ha so not just for a laugh and good wānanga (deliberation) but focusing more on the atua associated to each of those elements and how we can rethink, improve or enrich how engage with those tupuna to attain that optimal health and wellness.
Which brings us to segment number four….. “but what comes before breath? What could we not survive without if it was taken from us, or ceased to exist?
I’m glad you asked, take a seat — buckle up.
Like with all good mysteries as we try to figure out why things are the way they are, let’s look to whakapapa to help us find some answers. I’ll wait while we all feign surprise right now haha anyway, as you were.. we’re starting at the top!
Urutengangana is the eldest of te ira atua (the gods, celestial beings) — the bro is the atua and personification of light. From Urutengangana comes te whānau marama, the celestial bodies i.e. solar system, galaxies etc.
So just with this quick example, we see that stars don’t create light but are created from it and therefore are light. So by whakapapa we are light and we radiate light just by being who we are. . .
Anyway, I digress — more on this kōrero in upcoming posts (but if you want to dive into this puna, check this post out).
Let’s really sit with this whakaaro (idea) about light for a sec… seeing as without it, we’re gone, overs, done with — but I know I sure as heck haven’t given it as much thought as I have the other elements (kai, water and air).
We’re the perfect distance from and to Tamanuiterā here on Earth to sustain life and all the other things that come with exposure to light. Then we have vision: the light we see in our minds, puku and in our hearts before it’s made manifest. The dream, the idea, the possibility, the potential — the light that pulls us through “fun” times…
When we talking about Uru, we’re talking light in all its forms. warm, fuzzy feels, love, goodness, perception, interpretation, photoreceptors in the eye which interpret signals from the environment…..
And if perception is EVERYTHING. how we perceive ourselves, the environments we find ourselves in, the relationships in our lives, how we perceive our worthiness, our value, our misfortune, our anything and everything.*
Which leads me to ask the question, well, heaps of questions actually, but in particular and the first one to start off this cycle of wānanga,
what is it in a seed that when planted in the earth, isolated and in darkness — it becomes undone, it breaks and stretches itself beyond its means and reaches for the light?
What is it in us that inherently reaches for light in our own way?
Whakapapa in action? Yeah, it miiiiiiiiight have some answers for us…
Tēnā tātou,
Hana.
*there are other variables at play too (eg. colonial, patriarchal systems) that have a huge impact on how we behave and how we see ourselves. this is written with that in mind and doesn’t dismiss that — only to highlight how we can be self-determining regardless of those situations in one way or another.