I'm checking in on you

How are we, e hoa mā?

It feels like we're all struggling for morale right now. Our resilience was already kind of low, and the events of the last few days have been a kick in the pants. More of us are succumbing to COVID - and sure, we knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it easier to face.

What are you holding on to, to make it through? For me, it's a mix of the big and the small, because I think you need both to be OK.

There's the mahi of our health workers. I keep thinking of them - as numbers ramp up, including sick protesters that most of us would sooner walk past. These workers do their jobs, with ferocious ethics, integrity and compassion. I want to be as good as they are.

There's the calibre of the people in my world. I see them more online than in person - but they're so principled, so smart, so decent. And they're so bloody FUNNY. I don't know where I'd be without them.

There's the beauty of healing things. This one is harder to explain, unless the same stuff interests you. I've seen people exploring ideas from wise thinkers and leaders, from mātauranga and indigenous knowledge, from their faith, from poetry and art. Our ancestors, wherever they came from, have given us clues for getting through history's harshness.

There's heroism, in the face of the unimaginable, from the Ukraine. I guess it's when you face the unimaginable that you find a strength you could not have imagined.

There's my cat, Atawhai. He listens, every morning, until I stir, and he leaps up to see me. The first thing we do is have a kiss - he rubs his stinky cat saliva on my nose while I wince. Then we walk together to the kitchen. I get him a kai and open the cat door.

Kei te pēhea koe?