Tes | Tauhara, Waikato

“That’s one of my most favourite subjects, actually. Gratitude. I’m grateful for everything. Absolutely everything. Even the hard times. I’m grateful for the people in my life. I’m grateful for my life.

I’m grateful for the people who gave me life. I’m grateful for the people that I’ve been able to give life to, my children. The people who I spend time with. I’m really grateful for God, Atua. I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to be grateful for things. I’m grateful for breath. Oh, I can’t pinpoint it. There’s just so many things to be grateful for. I’m grateful for hard times, and the growth that I’ve had through them. I’m grateful for pain. I’m grateful that it’s a warning signal that something’s wrong and I need to make adjustments. I’m grateful for really good times. I’m grateful for growing. I’m grateful for people who share messages. I’m grateful for talking. I’m grateful for listening. I’m grateful for this Earth, the planet. 

I’m grateful for the time that I lost everything, and losing everything gave me a massive opportunity for me to learn what gratitude was. I know it sounds really funny, but I’m grateful for the time where I lost my home, I lost my children, I lost my family connections, and I’m grateful for the many experiences, the many painful experiences that brought me to a place where I had the opportunity to learn about myself, and learn about the traumas that I experience in life and how they brought me to make certain decisions that weren’t always beneficial for myself, and the people around me. I’m grateful that I went through that massively painful experience to be able to grow, and learn to be grateful for everything that I do have now. So, in all of that loss, I now have my children, and I have them in a much better way. I now have my own home that I own. I’m in such a better place now through that pain, through that loss, and I’m really grateful that I’m here, and that I’m sure that I’m going to experience a lot more things. There’s things that I’m very ungrateful for, that I’m learning to be grateful for.

I grew up in Taupō. I grew up in, I’d say the Bronx of Taupō, in the hood. I grew up in a lower decile community, I grew up old-skool. I love it. We had nothing, and we made things. Now I am learning to look after myself better. I am training through experience and through having mentors to become a wellness practitioner. So, that I’m sharing the experiences that I’ve had, the things that I’ve learned, with other people in a loving and supportive way through some special friends who’ve often taught me with love and support and focussing. I love this, what they say. They say to focus not on the mad, sad and bad but on the good things. Looking at life through the eyes of wellbeing. So, that’s where I’m at.”