Red Clover

Botanical Name:   Trifolium paratense

Maori Name:        

Common Name:    Red Clover

Medicinal Use:      Menopause issues

Who would have thought huh! this plant grown mainly as pasture for the animals can help with menopausal issues for women, and is seen to have cancer fighting properties - a little plant with a big mahi.

Such a pretty looking plant but it is not so prolific in my area of Tamaki Makaurau.  I've found a very small patch where I can gather a handful at a time, but it is in an area where soon a bulldozer will take it over.  When the opportunity to trade Kumarahou for Red Clover came along, I was in there with a grin.

Thank you my Hawkes Bay sis for this taonga.

Medicinally the plant can by used for women's issues and it has cancer fighting properties.

Rongoa Rakau

Botanical Name:   Myrsine Australis

Maori Name:         Mapou

Common Name:    Red Matipo

Medicinal Use:      Used for toothache and for cleaning teeth (as defined in Landcare dbase)

I like this rakau, it grows prolifically where I live in Tamaki Makaurau.  It is also found throughout the motu.

It's not a bad looking rakau with its crinkly leaves. It can be easily identified by red and purple like splotches on the leaves and its red stems and bark.  This rakau is usually found around the outer edges of the ngahere.

Medicinally the rakau can by used for pain management.

Kohatutaka

as told to my mum by her dad

News came to the chief that his son was being hunted

the hunters were not far away

the chief said to his son

stand by the fire

stand in this position

when those who hunt you, arrive

we will throw large stones on the fire

be ready, for when I clap, run!

the hunters near

the chief orders the dumping of the stones on the fire

this causes much ash and smoke to rise from the pit

so much, that the chief can no longer see his son

standing beside the fire...

the chief claps his hands

the son turns and runs under the cover of the smoke

escaping his would be captors

Kohatutaka – the dumping of the stones

disclaimer: I do not validate this korero as the correct version,

but for me, it is how it was told and thus passed down

through three generations.

My epiphany:

Having recently attended a wananga

I was shown how to use the 'kohatu' to ease a pressure point

I was enamoured by the kohatu used that day

lovely rounded base, smooth, slightly dark

and decided that I was going to search out a kohatu for me

over the past week I've been committing my pepeha to mind,

and Kohatutaka is my tupuna and hapu

well, whilst having a korero with IO this morning

I kept seeing these 'big as' hangi stones being dumped into a fire

the sparks were flying....

I look closer and one stone in particular starts to draw me in

it looked round, smooth and slightly dark.....

I korero about other things with IO then say my goodbyes....

I'm now at the table and I take my first mouthful of food

and my epiphany appears:

I don't have to search for a kohatu

to use as a healing tool in my mahi

for 'I am' the kohatu

the kohatu is within me

the kohatu is my tupuna

It's A Bus!

(our Dad worked for NZR for over 30 years - thought it an appropriate bus pic)

Getting on 'That' Bus

"always thought, the spotlight would shine down, and

one gets drawn into it's 'beam' and be lifted up to God's realm,

but it seems, that sometimes it's a bus!"

I had been talking with my sister, who said that our father was not well. She couldn't talk about it because he was listening and he didn't want her to tell me.

That night in my dreams.... I found myself sitting on this bus. Nice big comfy seats with headrests.

There were five other passengers on the bus. I happened to lean my head out a bit into the aisle so I could look down toward the front of the bus, and that was when I saw it. A little flame flickering out where the gear stick leaver was.

I called out to the bus driver, stop!, stop!, stop the bus! there's a fire in the engine, we have to get off the bus. The driver pulls over to the side of the road and stops the bus. The passengers start to disembark.

As I'm walking down the aisle I see this old man sitting in his seat beside the window. I turn to him and say... come on sir, we have to get off the bus, it's on fire and it might blow up any minute now.

The old man just sits there, I then reach over to him and take his arm and say come on sir, I'll help you. I then haul him up of the seat and put his arm around my neck (for he was weak), I put my arm around his waist and say come on, lets get of the bus. There is a lady walking behind me and I ask her to help... she just reaches out a hand and places a finger on his shoulder.

I get the man out the door and down onto what I thought would be the road, but it seems we have alighted onto a kind of wooden deck/flooring that had a safety rail on it and a flight of wooden stairs. I couldn't see any of the other passengers, that lady that I'd ask to help me, she had gone.

Well I say to this old man, come on then lets go down the steps and away from the bus... as I am helping him down the steps our surrounds start to change to a 'sepia' colour and the railings and steps turn into these old as 'punga' railings. We travel down about three levels when we step on to 'terra-firma' but I'm looking at an old, old marae village.... I can hear people talking, but I can't see them... we get to the gateway to the marae and I stop. I see people sitting in front of the marae, they're all in their pui-pui's looking at us... I look at them. I look at the old man I'm holding and say “come on, I'm not leaving you here!”.

I bend down and lift him up over my shoulder and walk back to the stairs and go up... when I get to the top, it is daylight and the bus has gone.

A week later I return to Aotearoa my dad is in hospital.... I see him on the day I arrive and promise him that I will be back in the morning and I will give him a 'healing' massage. When we (my sister and I) arrive at the hospital, we wait in his room for the nurses to bring him back from theatre. On his return they place him into the 'rocker' chair beside the bed. I rub vaseline on his lips, wet a 'dip stick' in water and moisten his mouth and whisper very quietly to him.... 'dad, it's time to go now' and kiss the side of his face.

I turn to the doctor and as we talk I hear 'that sound'.... she calls his name and shakes him, I steady her hand and said... 'no, he's gone... I heard the sound'. She tells me she has to go to reception but will be back shortly.

I'm leaning into the chair, hugging dad and crying... and that's when I saw it... the old man, hunched up, sitting in his chair.... that dream of the bus. Just then my sister walks in and says they sent her in to be with me.... she stayed long enough to utter those words then left again.

To me, that dream allowed me to 'hold' my father back on this earth plane long enough for me to return to see him, to be with him and hopefully I was able to guide him towards the light, into Gods Realm.

Chapter 1 - An unGodly Rant

 there isn't a God I rant

while on the wai piro

My cousins and I couldn't wait for the long weekend to roll around, for we would travel home to Mangamuka for a crazy and happy time of laughing, eating, drinking and some of that horizontal kanikani!

We would do the 400km drive on a Friday afternoon straight after work; pub crawling our way to the north, yes pub crawl! that type of thing is totally 'unthinkable' these days. We would start our pub crawl at the Albany Tavern then move onto Wellsford, Kaiwaka, Whangarei, Kawakawa, Okaihau and finally Mangamuka! We would hit the Mangamuka pub round 8pm and just go for it, laughing, singing, play pool and 'shout-up' large.

Closing time and we would move to uncles' house... the 'pink palace' and party hard, drinking (remember those big bottles of beer, I was a hard-out 'DB' drinker) and making eyes at the kanikani partner, all the while uncle is swearing at the 'so called kanikani partner to not touch, but that didn't stop us.

It was at one of these hard out party nights that in my drunken state (was like the last of the Mohican's to be still drinking) I found myself sitting at the table with my two cousins M and C and uncle and I remember blurting out 'I don't believe in God! He just doesn't exists and it's nothing but a huge fraud!” and, and who said god was a He!'

I remember the cuzzies going quiet and my uncle putting his bottle down, lifting his head up, look me in the eye.... and in a very, very quiet voice he said “don't talk like that France.... God is all around you, and he is here with you now, watching listening. God is here”.

Well needless to say, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and my scorn reigned down on his words... I couldn't stop... I rubbished God and religion, I let it all out the, the anger, the hurt, phew I remember well and truly getting up on my soap box. All the while uncle sat there looking at me, eyes squinting then opening wide and that little sideways grin... and he'd say again “no more France, ssssssh don't say that, God is real”.

Okay if you say he's real, then why can't I see God, why can't I touch him... you know how obnoxious one gets when they're drunk! well that was me! Huh he's rubbish... I rant!

Come to church with me and aunt on Sunday night, says uncle come to church and you will meet God. I snort with ridicule almost blowing my beer out through my nostrils... haha what for, for a laugh I cackle,  yeah okay I'll take you on! Uncle turns and looks at the two cousins who are rolling their eyes at my stupidity and uncles says “and you two are coming as well!” cause you know when uncle talks 'you do'.

(to be continued... chapter 2)

Tall Tales But True

a dark figure walks past

'did you see that, did you see that'

I was about 9 when it happened. We were at a marae in Kenena, Mangonui attending a tangi. Now this place is in the 'back and beyond'; bush clad hills and then mudflats as you get closer to the coast, one good thing was that as you got closer to the coast the dirt road turned in to a tar sealed road.

One night the adults decided to take a trip into the Mangonui township. I think it was to buy some beer for the workers back at the marae. It was one of those little trucks that had an open tray at the back. Uncle drove and mum sat in front with him and I sat between my aunties in the back. We were all rugged up in our coats, hats and gloves, blanket and then uncle put a 'tarp' over us and wedged it down tight on either side of the aunties and then clipped the bottom part under the tailgate, so it wouldn't flap.

It was really cold that night, I don't remember if the stars were out but for me it was one of those places that just scared me. We're travelling along the road, either side of us is like mangrove trees and mudflats, no houses, no street lights and very dark. My aunt to my left is sleeping, I'm all huddled down in the middle and my aunt to my right is half sitting half lying down, then all of a sudden... whoosh and you see this hand on the side of the truck then the tarpaulin is pulled up and of us. It is pulled right off us, right down to the tailgate.

As the tarpaulin is going down and flapping and the truck is travelling along, you see someone walking along the road dressed in a long black coat, it just walked away into the distance, my aunt (the one to the right) and I watched it walk away. My aunt began to scream out to the one that was sleeping, did you see that, did you see that person.... she was also banging on the roof of the truck cab so the truck would stop. She kept saying did you see that, did you see that... she asked me, did you see it.... I was that frightened I wouldn't say anything.

Finally the truck stopped and my uncle got out to see what was wrong, he was shocked to see our tarpaulin had come of and it was only just hanging on by the corner. My aunt said to him and my mum, did you see that person walking along the road, he pulled the tarpaulin off us as he walked past. Both mum and my uncle said they didn't see anything and they should have because of the truck lights and they would have seen everything that was coming towards them.

Well I was that frightened, I got in front with my mum and pretended to be asleep.... kept my eyes shut all the way to Mangonui pub and then all the way back to the marae.

The next day, when we went down to the creek to wash, I told my mum I had seen what aunt was talking about last night... and she told me I was wrong and being silly and I hadn't seen anything.

Reiki - The Healing Begins

 

Forgiveness ~ easy to say ~ is it hard to do?

As we prepared to leave the group that night our Reiki master said go home and go over all that had been learnt and for each to take note of what transpires through the night. Some of you will have an experience and some may not, follow the experience look, listen and learn. Tomorrow when you return we will talk about your experiences.

My friend and I are in the car and we are laughing, happy and talking that we're so tired we'd probably just drop off to sleep and wake up not remembering a thing. 

Not so. My revelation came through early hours of the morning.  I dreamt I was choking, I was eating some food and began to choke.  I could hear voices they sounded distant, I had this real bad pain at the back of my head, just down where the skull meets the neck.

Just before the pain hit I remember my head moving forward or being jolted and I remembered a cracking sound and there was this intense pain and my head felt really heavy. I'm lying there in my dream and thinking what is this pain, who are those voices, the pain starts to spread up over the crown of my head through the brow and then the eyes.  My throat hurts, what happened, what happened I'm asking myself, what happened?

And then it all comes 'flooding' back, the memories, the pain, the hurt, the who, the when, the why and I begin to cry; quietly at first, then big wracking sobs that shake my whole body, I curl up like a baby and cry. I remember that sound, it was terrible, I sounded like a wounded animal. The sound was forming deep in the base of my throat, I was dribbling, I was cold, I couldn't stop crying and I couldn't open my eyes.  I wanted to wake up, to end this horrible dream, but I couldn't.

When I realised what had happened and who had caused my pain, I started calling out 'I'm sorry dad, I'm sorry dad, I didn't mean to do it dad, I'm sorry, I'm sorry dad!'  I cried and cried and cried, it was no longer a dream, it was a reality! but I couldn't open my eyes.  I began to think what do I do? How do I stop this pain, and I did the only thing I could think of, I called out to 'God' to help me, I remember calling out, help, help me God! I don't know what to do! help me!

I felt this warmth envelop me, like someone had placed a blanket over and around me, it was a calming warmth... my tears slowed and then dried, my breathing returned to normal no longer gasping and then I saw my dad, he was standing beside me crying, telling me he was sorry, he didn't mean to hit me so hard. I reached out and touched his arm and said “I forgive you dad, I forgive you, please don't cry dad, I forgive you”.

As soon as I finished saying those words, everything was different, I could straighten or stretch my body, I just felt warmth and a peaceful calmness and I was smiling.  I've never felt so much at peace as I did at that time.

Well I obviously slept because I woke up in the morning all bright and happy and thought did that really happen?  I wouldn't have acknowledged it if it wasn't for the band of 'warmth' that surrounded the back of my skull at the join to the neck, hmmmm I say to myself while waiting for my ride. I'm not going to talk about my experience with the group, no way, this was way too personal to share.

There were 200 students at that weekend seminar. Our master made everyone share. I tried to get out of it, I was hoping she wouldn't realise I hadn't spoken, no such luck! I was the last to speak. We shed a lot of tears that morning myself and my fellow students.

We had a special healing session after I had finished speaking and others came forward during the day to give thanks for my sharing such a personal experience with them. Some gave thanks because through my words they too, were able to 'forgive and let go'.

Reiki heals ... in so many different ways....