Mahi

A different way of approaching work

Photo by J Williams on Unsplash

Hard work. It has to be done. Even the easy jobs can seem hard. Like doing the dishes or mowing the lawn.

You know if you’re to maintain your world; you need to work at it.

You read success books. You make lists. You get up earlier. You work through the night. Work. Work. Work.

It’s enough to bring you down.

The endless dishes and meals to prepare. And when you get to your art you have the same attitude of getting-it-done. It is all grind. Making you want to escape rather than engage.

Here’s a different way of approaching what has to be done.

The Maori have a word:

Mahi

It means ‘good work’. The work you do for your family. For your art. For your community. For the Earth. For your god. It has valour and dignity and value.

When we lived in a tribe, all work was done for the good of all.

The children who fetched the twigs for the fire. The old woman who nursed the newborn. The girl who made flax baskets to store the root vegetables. The woman who spent all day with stone in hand grinding corn to flour. The man who killed the wild boar. The ceremony performed to show their collective gratitude to the sun, the moon and the…