The sound the universe makes when it laughs

Kia ora my friends,

I'm entering the final week of my stay at the crib and I think the greatest gift, apart from the constancy of the waves and the proximity to the sky with its infinitely changeable moods, has been time to read.

Yesterday I finished Tame Iti's memoir and stood up and applauded him, like actually fist pumped the air with Hone laughing along with me. You can hear Tame's voice as clear as a bell, full of wisdom and self-reflection and ... well, mana. It's a generous deep-dive into the source of his conviction. But even more importantly, we see his curiosity, his playfulness, his love of the theatre of life and all its stages. There's humility as well as courage. He challenges and scrutinises himself just as much as others, admitting fault at times but always being open to learn, reflect and change while remaining firm in his Tūhoetanga. If there's one unwavering motivation in his life it has been his resistance to colonial injustice.

Why this book isn't on the Ockhams shortlist I don't know and I won't forgive. Anyone struggling with their art will find inspiration and encouragement, and also the authority of short sentences. Iti te kupu. Maybe most significantly of all, I have been reminded I'm only 48.

Still time to learn how to say more with less.

Despite the inspiration all around me, I still went to bed swearing I would give up writing for good. It's confronting to be up close with your own work day after day after day. But then I woke and saw the horizon lit up like gold and it was still there, as reliable as the tide: the impulse to write.

Part 1: The ring

He brought me a shell ring back from Mahanga, the beach over which the mountain he is named for stands, but not just one ring, three: one for each of us, my mother, my daughter and me. You'd think the gesture meant he understood that I was a package deal, but that wasn't the reason. He brought three rings because there were three of us at home. I was the one who presumed marriage and declined to put it on.