Our Mother connection

I feel privileged to know, have encountered and to have learned important aspects of childbirth over the years and more importantly these past months.  I remember the important things that apply to birth and especially that of the umbilical cord, belly button or umbilicus.  The belly button is the link that we have with our mothers from birth, if you can think of the way in which we are sustained within the womb through our umbilical cord.  When we interfere with this by way of piercings, we are cutting that link from our mothers in such a spiritual way.  I am lucky to have been handed down knowledge such as this thanks to my tungane (brother) Ezard.  I believe that he plays an integral role in promoting the essence of Maori healing and it's benefits and I feel that pull as he did them years back when he apprenticed with Papa.  My skills and knowledge are no match to that of his, though I hear him chanting the Takutaku when I am doing mahi and for me that centers and grounds me even more.  I always enjoyed the way in which he would work on someone in such a manner that inspired me.  Why it took me this long to fully reciprocate the mahi, is based on my own in confidence, where I didn't trust myself enough to be in neutrality.  This amount of years on and I am thankful that I have a mentor such as Wikitoria Oman to nurture and awhi the inner healer.  It is something that we are all born with, yet something that we either acknowledge and feed or suppress until the signs are all present for us.