This day, twenty six years ago

- the day before I was born, and also the day before my new niece and nephew will be born (if my karakia work) haha anyway, there’s a post somewhere online about how if your firstborn is easygoing and cruisey, it’s a trap! A trap by Mother Nature to boost your confidence and encourage you to reproduce, then, baby number two comes along = hurricane child. Apparently the case for my māmā and pāpā, bless them.

Obviously, up to no good..

Anyway, Hineteiwaiwa (atua of childbirth, weaving). My whakaaro of her this week, have been about how you know how ‘atua’ aren’t just the guardian or deity of the particular elements in the environment, they’re not separate from those domains, they’re the energy that manifested as those elements eg. the earth (Papatūānuku), freshwater (Parawhenuamea), music (Hineraukatauri). And going into certain spaces allows us to engage with atua more intimately; with Tāne Mahuta - forest, Tangaroa - sea etc. Then there’s also the capacity to use karakia and other rituals to demand the expressions of those atua within us, to be drawn out to suit the occasion. Take a second to bring all those whakaaro (concepts) to the boil, then when you’re ready, leave to simmer in the back for a while.

I have my book baby and also other kaupapa (initiatives, causes) I’m giving myself to and I’m actively weaving my life together all the time - according to the whakaaro I laid out earlier, I’m always engaged with Hineteiwaiwa. You know I thought to myself later last week, I didn’t know what I was running off, because my output was way disproportionate to what was coming in energy-wise. I was doing what needed to be done, sacrificing pretty much everything, in order to deliver the most demanding kaupapa-babies and get them over the line.*

I reckon it was Hineteiwaiwa pulling me through. And when you think of what māmā do, how they adapt and just make it happen for their whānau, how their bodies grow and change to bring new life into the world and everything else in between - you wonder how they do it?! Just channeling Hineteiwaiwa and demanding that Goddess strength and grace outta them.°

Probably most definitely something similar to what my parents encountered over the last twenty six years, with their hurricane child, many times.

Nāku noa,

Hana.

*It’s not sustainable, I know that - thanks, judgey. And I don’t plan on jumping back into a whole heap of mahi anytime soon haha I’m ok, the flow just went through a few rapids for a while there and we’ve turned a bend and now, we’re back into smooth-ish waters for a bit.

°For the pāpā’s and other caregivers out their too. Ko Hineteiwawa hoki tērā i roto i a tātou katoa, she’s present in all of us.