E - Manawanui - Te Po
Learning To Stay!
This is where I have come to understand E.
E feels like a bridge — a movement between what is happening around me and what is happening within me.
For me, this movement has become especially important when I am in limbo.
That place where something has changed, but I don't yet know what comes next.
When we are in limbo, it can be tempting to look outside ourselves for the answer.
What should I do?What does everyone else think?What happens next?
But E asks me to turn inward.
To listen.To feel.To stay present with what is happening inside rather than rushing to escape the uncertainty.
The vowel itself can become part of that movement, spoken aloud or quietly within, allowing sound and breath to draw awareness inward, toward the heart.
And this is where I meet Manawanui.
Manawanui - The Heart of Steadfastness
Manawanui is the Heart of Steadfastness.
Within my understanding, Manawanui sits in the middle of the chest.
I used to think steadfastness meant being strong enough to keep going.
Now I understand it differently.
Sometimes steadfastness is simply the courage to stay.
To stay when you don't know.
To stay when the old way no longer feels right, but the new way hasn't appeared.
I have had moments when I wanted to make a decision simply because I couldn't bear the uncertainty anymore.
But I have learned that making a decision just to escape discomfort doesn't necessarily bring clarity.
Sometimes we need to remain in the space between.
Te Pō - The Space Between
This is how I have come to experience Te Pō.
Not simply as darkness, but as limbo.
The space between what has been and what is becoming.
The old may be falling away, while the new hasn't yet taken form.
It can feel like nothing is happening.
Yet looking back at my own life, I can see that some of the periods I thought were stagnant were actually important periods of change.
I simply couldn't see it at the time.
Sometimes life puts us somewhere that cannot be solved by doing.
We have to be.
Learning to Stay in the In-Between
The movement of E → Manawanui → Te Pō has helped me understand that limbo isn't necessarily somewhere we need to escape.
It can be somewhere we need to move through.
E turns me inward.
Manawanui gives me the steadiness to stay.
Te Pō gives me space to be with what has not yet become clear.
There is something humbling about saying:
"I don't know yet".
Not because I am lost, but because I am still becoming clear.
I am learning not to rush this part of the journey.
To trust that just because I cannot yet see what is coming, it doesn't mean that nothing is happening.
Sometimes we are simply being given the space to become ready for what comes next.
E → MANAWANUI → TE PŌ
The movement inward.The heart that stays.The space between.
AU E IO
RETURN TO MAURI • RETURN TO SELF
This is part of my evolving understanding of AU E IO, shaped through my lived experience, reflection and the people and teachings that have guided my journey. I share it with respect and humility, as my understanding rather than a definitive representation of Māori knowledge.
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