Hello Bali!

Just another blond girl here, reporting on the ups and downs of living in paradise…

Lucky me…Paradise has moved today. I have been accompanied by four of my favourite people on a little holiday escaping the constant holiday of Manly. This morning,we found ourselves waking up in a six bedroom luxury villa in Canggu, Bali.

Bali is a very special place. Its’ land reminds me of an unintended collaboration between Kenya and Hawaii. There is an essence like that of Hawaii – an ancient wisdom streaming through the rice paddies and the beaks of tiny birds. There are jagged rocks and the earth is fertile, abundant and green. She speaks to me when I come here. She has goddess like qualities, a powerful and all-knowing presence but she is stern in her request for self-compassion and softness.

Like Kenya, her people beam from their culture and genuine appreciation for life itself. Everyone smiles, welcoming all foreigners to stay for as long as they like. She isn’t perfect. She is fuelled by corruption, poverty and dirty roads, but these accessorise her diverse personality. The orderly chaos of the streets reminds me of Nairobi.

This morning I awoke early. The rooster was the first one up, fulfilling his duty to start the day. The air was filled with darkness…the moments of anticipation when the clock speaks of morning and the sun’s first glimmer has yet to arrive.

The second sound wafted eerily through the air – chanting from a nearby mosque. The men reverberate prayers that are so unfamiliar to a western blond girl born and raised in Canada. We hear them from time to time, but never quite understand the potency within each deep, throaty echo from a language created long before our culture arrived.

A slow and repetitive hum, a barely recognisable shift between notes – the sound mesmerises me because it speaks to something foreign and nurturing. Sometimes readings fall short when the experience of listening to a song can tell me everything there is to know.

A series of hot daylight hours pass…the light begins to transform into a calmer, more shadowy version of herself.

I peer to my left – an infinity pool nestled in between rice paddies, icing the carved building behind me. I gaze out at the wafting smoke dissipating flames from the controlled burning in the fields. Black kites hover above the paddies and terracotta tiled roofs, some of them quite high, some of them barely recognisable in the distance. I must find out the story behind these?

There are rustling palm leaves, water trickling behind the hidden wall of the pool and the infrequent, yet constant chatter of birds. There is a muffled hum of passing scooters, reminding me that my little haven is a mere hundred feet from the busyness of Balinese life. The rooster, he still squawks.

It’s hard not to feel guilty for the abundance around me. Just outside on this street are those very much less fortunate riding around in threes and fours on scooters. They are often without shoes, barely with enough food for dinner and here I lounge sleepily after an hour massage, surf and organic smoothie at a local tourist café.

Having spent time in underdeveloped areas of the world I feel fortunate to have created personal relationships with the people. I’ve listened to their stories, their challenges and their desires and from this I conclude that it’s okay to acknowledge the guilt for the abundance – these feelings are only natural; however, I would never disrespect what I have been given in this moment by pushing it away because of guilt.

I shall drink in every second of today. I will offer abundance my full presence and not for even a second indulge in my worries that exist one thousand miles away, or only in the projections of my mind. I’ve learned that not acknowledging my gifts is much worse than recalling the world’s disparities themselves.

So I say a massive thank you to this place where I have landed today.

Being in the midst of holiday mode, I am not surprised that my well-trained mind continues to desire a sense of accomplishment.

“What shall we get out of this trip?”

“What shall we do?”

“We must learn to surf big waves and practice yoga every day and make sure not to drink too much but still go out and party a little bit and get enough sleep and connect with our friends and meet new friends and see new places and read all of my books and….”

Stop please.

That’s enough mind. You can rest now. Maybe for two weeks you don’t have to do anything other than what you want to do in each moment. Maybe you just want to have fun. You won’t know what fun looks like until you are there so really, there’s nothing to worry about!

Relief.

My girlfriend lounges in a beanbag, holding an open book, not reading it but gazing into the distance, twirling her ankle in the surface of the cool pool.

Ripples migrate further and further into the centre with every twirl of her foot. The ripple effect is interesting – one seemingly tiny movement can expand and change the space beyond for considerable miles. Our happiness and our anger do this too.

This trip to Bali (I hope) will allow me the space to create a still, calm, rested and happy surface of my pool. I can then choose how I want to begin twirling my ankle – but only when I am ready! I realise every twirl has the potential to change the entire world.

Happy Ramadan from Bali

xx