and so become yourself, because the past is just a goodbye. Crosby, Stills and Nash The first morning at Villa Mangku, a snake appeared. Dark and curled on the cool white tile of the kitchen floor. My bare feet, suddenly vulnerable and exposed. I mistook the snake as a bad omen, but it wasn’t. Snakes, […]
Stuck in Bali Stories
Distancing, Socially
I remember my first friend. He understood me and made me laugh. And he was completely imaginary.
Nyepi
humans go silent all else awakens, sings out it’s not us. rejoice. On the morning of Nyepi I wake as my dream lingers, its vivid palette fading like a painting left out in the sun. First, I remember the rice fields. It’s no wonder they now appear in my dreams. They are one reliable constant […]
I’m Stuck in Bali: Stories of Pandemic Proportions. #2: Out of Nowhere
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about. ~ rumi In the morning I sit and drink black coffee and watch the farmers work the rice fields. It looks like unimaginably tedious, […]
I’m Stuck in Bali: Stories of Pandemic Proportions. #1: In the Flow
“Flow down and down in always widening rings of being.” ~ rumi I’m not good at this. But it’s my turn. I place my palms together and hold them to my forehead. The water is cooler than I expected. The air ripe with smoky-sweet incense. I’ve watched others as I waited. They know what to do. […]