if you don’t see a problem, why would you think of changing anything?

Last week added the puna (pool) of kōrero and information about optimal health and wellness according to how we interact with atua, in terms of the hierarchy that comes with our connection to food, water and air — we need these to survive, sure, but there are other elements that come into play to truly live and thrive.

For example, developing meaningful connections, belonging, being part of something bigger, greater than ourselves to name a few. But more on that when that moon cycle rolls around..

We’re focusing on kai for the next few weeks because it’s the first, according to this sequence and wānanga (thought process) and also in terms of our connection to it on an individual and collective level and how big of a role it plays in our lives today.

We have a spiritual connection to kai — through ceremonies and rituals and also our whakapapa/ancestral connection to it.

There’s an emotional element to it, it provides comfort and triggers receptors in the brain that release chemicals that make us feel a type of way. There’s the physical connection of hunting, gathering, growing and harvesting the foods, prepping meals, food as fuel etc.

It’s so much more than the physical food item or meal we put into our mouths but has been limited to that part of the kai lifecycle for many of us. And as a result we miss out on different layers of connection to ourselves and to our tupuna (ancestors) because we’re not participating in certain parts of the process.

Is this a problem though?

Why should we care? If we don’t see a problem with this, why would we think of changing? Before Uepoto’s discovery of the world beyond Rangi and Papa (heaven and earth), there was no alternative and being tucked in between them was the only option for te ira atua (tha gods). Didn’t matter if they didn’t like it or not because that was all they knew, all they had ever experienced…

When we copy + paste this example and apply it to other scenarios and circumstances in our lives, a more striking picture begins to reveal itself.. let’s take the mental food, the information we consume, for instance.

No doubt you’ve come across the news of the sentencing for the terrorist responsible for last year’s Mosque shootings here in New Zealand. What did it stir up in you? how did you physically feel, did it change or affect you in anyway? what emotions came up? where were you when you learned of the sentence? did your mind travel back to where you were on March 15th when the attacks happened? Did you actively search this information out or did it find you somehow?

Or something else I’m sure we’re all familiar with; covid-19. What’s your emotional connection to this virus that’s affected our lives and livelihoods so much? Is there a spiritual connection there? Physical? How does any news or information you come into contact with about coronavirus make you feel? Excited? happy? fearful? anxious? worried? Indifferent? Unbothered?

Consuming the information is just one part.

Just like with eating.

So if we became more aware about what our relationship with kai actually entails, would we be more intentional about what we ate, how we ate it and even why? Compared to if we just focused on the consumption part of the equation?

Would we also then notice a problem (or two) in the relationship we have with kai? All the way from how we cultivate it, to how we consume and the after effects of it?

Te ira atua formed whole new worlds after being exposed to an alternative possibility.. it excites me to think what new worlds are waiting for us on the other side of considering an alternative path. That small seed of possibility is all we need to get started and nurture into curiosity strong enough to push heaven and earth apart…. just like our tupuna did.

But first we need to acknowledge a problem exists.

“to begin healing, stop kidding yourself that a little feel-good of the wrong sort will take care of a broken leg. tell the truth about your wound and then you will get a truthful picture of the remedy to apply to it.”

— Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés, women who run with wolves (my most favourite book, hands down).

the diagnosis will sting, because self and collective reflection that results in us being in the wrong means we have a responsibility to do something about it. but that’s how we know to find and use the right medicine for our mamae. that’s how we heal. ourselves, our people, our taiao and the world.

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.

*I was initially writing this post about something else. About building on a steady foundation, one of love, kindness and faith hence why my nan and pāps are the photo for it. It didn’t sit right for this week’s post, so will keep chipping away at it and hopefully get it to a state to share with you soon.

I miss them both heaps. Dad, having his rest and nan probably watching Netflix at home with the volume cranked all the way up.