Here is a whakaaro that has been sitting on my heart lately, especially as we look at the challenges facing our beautiful Northland. This wisdom came from my pōtiki who was 11 at the time. It’s a simple rule of thumb for life, a hierarchy of needs that we often get twisted: 1. Be safe. 2. Have fun. 3. Do what you’re here to do. In that precise order. The wero (challenge) we face in our modern world, particularly under the pressure of what we might call the "Babylonian" operating system, is that we frequently swap numbers two and three. We put the "grind" before the joy, and in doing so, we damage the very spirit—the wairua—that fuels our purpose.

The first step is non-negotiable: Be safe. In our research, we talk about the "Economic Pā". Historically, the Pā was a place of defence and storage, ensuring the survival of the hapū. You cannot thrive if you are constantly in a state of survival mode or high entropy (disorder). We need "Ontological Security"—a safety of mind, body, and spirit. Whether it is financial security through institutions like Te Au Rawa Mutual or simply the safety of a warm, dry home, this foundation allows us to lower our guard and breathe. Without safety, the "wave function" of our potential cannot collapse into a reality of abundance.

We are currently drowning in data but starving for wisdom. If you walk into any boardroom in Whangarei or sit in a council meeting in Kaikohe, the air is thick with spreadsheets, GDP forecasts, and ROI percentages. We’ve become experts at measuring the "price" of everything while remaining completely blind to the "value" of anything.

The old Babylonian operating system has convinced us that if the line on the graph goes up, we are winning. But look out the window. If that profit comes at the cost of a silt-choked awa, if it’s built on the backs of whānau who can’t afford to live in the towns they were born in, then that "growth" is just a polite word for entropy. In the physics of the Woven Universe, we are exporting order and importing chaos. We are measuring the speed of the car while the engine is melting.