Eat. Pray. Bali.

Going to Bali reminded me of my love for Eat, Pray, Love. Call me cliche...I deserve it. So it is there I'll begin:

In the end, I've come to believe in something I call "The Physics of the Quest." A force in nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity. The rule of Quest Physics goes something like this: If you're brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting, which can be anything from your house to bitter, old resentments, and set out on a truth-seeking journey, either externally or internally, and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher and if you are prepared, most of all, to face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from you.

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love. 

Physics was never really my subject. And by that I mean, I hated physics, and I was terrible at it. BUT I did retain Newton's first law-the law of inertia (obviously the most important...): The tendency of an object to resist changes in motion/velocity and to maintain its current state of motion.

"The vis insita, or innate force of matter, is a power of resisting by which every body... endeavours to preserve its present state, whether it be of rest or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line."

...A human tendency that keeps me from uncovering other truths because my nature is to follow the same trajectory, to be housed in old resentments and the gravitational pull towards what's comfortable to "endeavour to preserve my present state" even if it's not ideal/healthy/productive- Because we all know what change means...the existential questioning, push the red button crisis. But I've come to realize that it's impossible to live unaffected by the people you meet along the way, and thank goodness-it is only through that reflection of ourselves that we can even begin to face and forgive some realities about ourselves, learn funnier jokes, discover new recipes, learn Gangnam style, see things differently or marvel at something in spite of our baggage. 

 I learned one of those truths through a friend we met along the way in Bali, Adi. Adi was our driver and host at Dara Ayu, a villa we stayed in. He was so kind and in the short time we stayed there, he taught me so much. He lived in a house just beyond the rice fields and he walked in to work. Dona and I had decided to wake up for the sunrise (gasp, I know what you're thinking, "YOU, up BEFORE the sun?" Well believe it, friend. Talk about transformation...) and have some time out in the rice terraces before it got too hot. When Adi came up, he took us on a trek down through the rice fields and taught us about the process of harvesting rice.

Did you know that EVERY SINGLE little rice stalk is planted BY HAND. EVERY stalk. Can you imagine? He also showed us a fresh water spring where he and several of the rice harvesters have created a temple to honor the gift of this spring. They take nothing for granted and are driven by their faith to give praise for gifts of natural water and for places where big trees grow. Things like this bring me toe to toe with the things I take for granted and the people's truths I might have otherwise overlooked. But physics tell us that those forces are the ones that help us change our linear path and move towards a path appreciating the truths of others and to live affected by the realities of them.

While staying at Dara Ayu, we visited the volcano located in the center of Bali. Adi told us about the destruction there and the resilience of the people in Bali over this incredible view during lunch.

Then I looked around in this place at the chaos its endured. The way its been adapted, burned, pillaged, and found a way to build itself back up again...and I was reassured. Maybe my life hasn't been so chaotic, It's just the world that is. And the only real trap is getting attached to any of it. Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.... we must always be prepared for endless waves of transformation. 

-Elizabeth Gilbert

I was so inspired by Bali's strength and beauty despite tragedy and wreckage from past events. Ruin is a road to transformation.

Tanah Lot  was one of my favorite temples and you can only get to it during certain tides so we were lucky enough to get to explore it a bit (This is also the scene of  my first and probably last bit of mistaken fame with my paparazzi moment).

I was also incredibly lucky to have such WONDERFUL travel companions and some new friends! Dona, Deo, Mhalu are in my community group through Every Nation Church and Liane and Jill are friends from the Philippines. We had such an adventure together with our pisang goreng, midnight Balinese massages, and even the car rides were entertaining :) Especially with our sweet corn and karaoke! So so thankful for such a lovely group of friends to trek Bali together! 

Want to see some more? Snapshots of Bali

I'm SINGing: "Heart of Gold" Neil Young

Fake it til you Make it

So I've been dragging my feet on posting about Bali because there's just so much beauty to write about. So instead of posting about how it truly awakened and fed my soul (just yet), I am going to first tell you about what I think must have been some David Blaine mind trick that may have caused my Indonesian 15 minutes of fame...but hey, I'll take it. While visiting Tanah Lot, my friends and I started taking some group pics in front of the temple (as per usual), and I noticed some onlookers using the strategy of getting your friend to pose and then the friend sort of ducks out of the way so you can really take a pic of something behind your friend but not look sketchy...little did they know I too have mastered this art capturing the glorious mullets of the South, USA. Busted. Anyways, so a few people came over to me and asked what I thought was, "Will you take a picture of us" so I said "sure" and then about 10 people came putting arms around me and throwing up token peace signs smiling for our paparazzi picture. After that first picture, there began a queue of people waiting to take a picture with me-mob mentality is real-for the next 20 minutes. It probably didn't help that my sweet friends were egging it on with comments about filming the sequel to Eat.Pray.Love. and how was I doing "Mrs. Roberts." I should have asked them who they thought I was or why they even wanted a picture together but I was too star struck by my new found fame so I just soaked it in because if my dream of becoming Joan's long lost sister on Mad Men falls through, this may have been my only shot at celebrity status.

But really, I could see where they might get confused. After many many years of practice (Morgan Smith circa kindergraden and on) I did do a pretty good Ariel hair flip:

I'm SINGing: "Fame" -David Bowie