08.04.2019 Whakatauki

Ka moe te mata hī ika
Ka oho te mata hī taua

"We sleep through the little, insignificant things
(such as fishing), but we are awoken to the battle."

I think this whakatauki can be seen in many different ways (with many different translations).
Firstly I see this whakatauki speaking about taking things for granted. I believe the first line is saying that we cannot see (we are asleep to) the smaller things in life and we take them for granted. We have become accustomed and desensitized to the beautiful everyday things in life and we can't see just how lucky and privileged we are. But the second talks of how when those privileges are taken from us (through the battles we face in life) we wake up and our eyes are opened to what we really had despite our blindness.

I also see this whakatauki talking about the things we face in life and how we need to pick our battles. I think it can be seen as saying that the smaller things in life, the trivial battles that we face should not consume our time and energy but rather we should sleep through these small battles. However we should awake for the wars, the heartfelt battles and challenges that ignite our passion and our emotion. We should awake to face the the big things life throws our way rather than waking up because life is merely throwing pebbles at the window.