Late 2013
Spent my 1st night on the land. A glorious dawn heralded by nature's finest symphony, mostly of the flying variety with a bovine and poultry chorus. Happy.
Today I'm a bit of a grumpy traveller, especially after being told the only seat from Hong Kong to CA is a middle one. I was so busy I forgot to pre-select my seat. So I've bought my way into the lounge here in Denpasar, to see if a glass of wine and a smooshy sofa will sweeten, (or dull), the prospect of being human sandwich filling for about 14 hours straight.
Oh yes, and I'm leaving Bali, never great for the mood.
After all my whinging I ended up with the very best seat in economy, the front row just after business with mega leg space and an easy exit. It was a wonderful comfy trip, (no drugs needed). Now in the Super 8 LAX, I perversely love very seedy American Motels. Back in the city where I set off on the 23rd of May, around the world in 121 days.
Cannot wait to do it again.
Coming back to the US is like a re-civilising exercise; donning jewellery again, pack away the fanny/bum bag, (Libran daughter takes a huge sigh of relief), and pull out the "real" handbag. And make-up: re-detecting that subtle line between looking completely au natural and looking like a clown. Actually to heck with that, if I'm going to do it, it'll be with fire engine red lipstick.
Doing FB in real time, hanging out eye to eye, toe to toe with my most wonderful friends. Friendship is one of many things that just gets richer, deeper, more rewarding and full of love with every passing year. Anyone young with fears of ageing, try and let them go. If you stay healthy, every year just gets better.
Today was an out in the world, potentially tedious, errand day, spent relating to people with not the most exciting jobs. But every single person I encountered was warm and kind and smiling, so the whole time was filled with delicious life-affirming moments. The to-do list is way shorter and the list of things and people to appreciate much, much longer.
Staying with 2 of my most positive, upbeat, life-loving friends, and I'm very happy to say... it's highly contagious.
I'm now getting enough workshop sign-ups from China and Asia that I need to add a gender button to the registration form. I'm completely clueless as to whether names are male or female. And Google is proving pretty hopeless in helping.
A huge demi-pearl with sparkling diamond chip reflected in a vast pool of shifting, frothy Mercury, ie: the half Moon and Venus over the Pacific Ocean. This planet rocks.
One of my most decadent life desires/requests: for the rest of my life to always take hot showers under the ever changing Moon. Not quite sure why that soothing, liquid experience coupled with a jolt of the heavens never fails to uplift... but it always does.
Big Yowza on this lunar eclipse coming up on the 18th, (Libra/Aries). To compromise or to kill (metaphorically of course); that is the question? Climbed a mountain today, and this Aries Moon is going to keep keeping herself exhausted until this too is passé, past, passed.
I've been away from Bali exactly the right amount of time: the life span of one pedicure. Had one the morning I left, and a month later it's still hanging in there, and will do so until the next one the evening I get back to the island, (so long as no-one holds a microscope to my toes).
Don't hate me because I'm spoiled.
Goddess bless my marvellous friends who put up with me breezing in and out of town, let me park my car at their houses for months on end, shower me with love, laugh with me lots, cry with me some, feed, water and wine me, tuck me into lovely cotton sheets, patiently listen to my tales and look at my pics, and forever keep my faith in friendship fuelled. Your sustaining welcomes are the only stability I need. Thank You.
The gods of overweight baggage are still with me. This time I got 2 that were well over the limit through, plus a whole extra suitcase. Where's the "smug traveller" emoticon?
Yet again flying on a Mercury Station, that trickster more often than not feels like a buddy of mine.
On the way "home" to Bali after the happiest friend-fest here in California.
I'm gushing I know, but this has to be a top ten life-time.
Bali
Hong Kong Airport... and the woman making announcements has a distinct Scottish accent. We highlanders do get around.
Back in Bali, and just in time to see the island at her most bedecked and beautiful. Tomorrow is Galungan, and the perfect re-entry, recoup from jet drag, Mercury Retrograde, so happy to be back where people live and believe this way.
Hari Raya Galungan Tahun, 2013
"Galungan is a Balinese holiday that occurs every 210 days and lasts for 10 days. Kuningan is the last day of the holiday. Galungan means "When the Dharma is winning." During this holiday the Balinese gods visit the Earth and leave on Kuningan.
Occurring once in every 210 days in the pawukon, (Balinese cycle of days), Galungan marks the beginning of the most important recurring religious ceremony that is celebrated by all Balinese. During the Galungan period the deified ancestors of the family descend to their former homes. They must be suitably entertained and welcomed, and prayers and offerings must be made for them. Those families who have ancestors that have not yet been cremated, but are still buried in the village cemetery, must make offerings at the graves."
(stolen from yet another anonymous source)
I think of days like today as cocoon days, wrapped in something silky, dissolving into nothingness, imperceptibly morphing into something brand new, preparing to take flight as some wild and colourful other creature. Sometime soon. Maybe tomorrow... or the day after that.
When a personal dream and the worldly reality intersect and start sparking and actually manifesting, even the wildest, most fanciful imaginings can dull by comparison.
Amazing how one little act of kindness from a complete stranger, (in a bank, no less), can completely turn irritable mood syndrome into its exact opposite. Hope I am woman enough to remember to pay that one forward all day long today.
I feel a semi-coma kind of afternoon creeping up. Yours truly in the supine position, kindle and lots of snacks within effortless reach.
Oy, that razor thin line between shabby shabby and shabby chic.
Little black snake at the dark of the Scorpio Moon, only nature is capable of queuing things so perfectly.
Sitting by my lotus pond in the tropics listening to traditional Scottish music, now that's feeling perfectly and exquisitely at home.
Sweden, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Holland, Iran, Australia, America, New Zealand... busily preparing for souls from all these far flung places to arrive in Bali for a fantastic week + of Traditional Astrology with the brilliant Ben Dykes.
I so respect people who don't micro-manage, and oh how I wish I were one of them.
Everyone has landed. Ben Dykes having travelled the furthest (30 hours), is in amazing spirits. This is very lucky as he has a whole flock of hungry astrologers ready and eager for his wisdom. I am very much one of them.
Damn, it feels good to have your mind and astrology stretched and enriched. Thank you so much for your dedication, research, and intensive and incredible preparation, and for bringing it all to us in Bali.
Last day; bittersweet, great group, old friends, new astro-buddies, many from China, Ben is, (most deservedly), a bit of a super star there. It has been wonderful. Tomorrow everyone disperses across the island and planet, and I shall leap onto my trusty scooter, let the breeze whistle through my helmet, and head for the Bali Sea.
Bliss.
After the workshops come the catch-up on so called work, (reading charts), days. Who else on the planet has as rewarding, fascinating, enlightening, enriching and endlessly interesting a "job" as this?
Right, so having 3 exact transits... Saturn square Sun, Pluto opposition Uranus, and Uranus exactly on the IC can represent attempting to fly over a bloody big hole in the road, (from all the rains), on one's scooter and ending up with lots of scrapes and a few stitches on the foot, (the injections were worse than the fall). Nothing broken, and a mini army of kind and gracious Balinese friends and doctors most successfully put Humpty together again.
And yes, I will be doubly, trebly, quadruply cautious when next riding on beaten up, pot-holed roads at night again.
Yowza... for an emergency room visit here in Bali, (and at a centre targeted for tourists not locals... it was closest), 2 shots, stitches, much bandaging, antibiotics and pain medication = $85.
We have found the old timer in our village who will make all our bowls from coconut shells, and a steady supply of fresh organic coconut oil. All to be produced in his backyard. Our plates will be disposable, and the banana trees are donating their leaves to that purpose.
The simplest of things.
That fuzzy but razor-sharp line between love and dependency. Love does not require dependency, and dependency certainly does not always denote love. And yet how often we confuse one for the other.
Many of the Palmistry Workshop bebeks/ducks, (my affectionate name for the students as they weave their way through the rice fields), are already in the air and winging their way to Bali. 24th Heaven and Earth Workshop... and yes I'm counting
The Palmistry workshop is amazing, an entire new fascinating language. All students, (and moi), very happy. And my good buddy and our master palmist, Frank Clifford, a total delight to work with.
Was just standing in line at a local Ubud restaurant behind a rapt young woman listening to her enthuse about her spiritual teacher and his magnificent gift for mesmerisation, simply through the power of his energy, charisma and gaze. Was itching to interject with the fact that Jim Jones and Charles Manson had the exact same talent. But I was good and held my tongue. Love this town, but the "bliss ninny" factor does at times get my cynic button flaming red and flashing wildly.
Yet another New Year's Midnight I will NOT greet with open eyes, (10:00 pm and these lids are already a-drooping). I believe the last one I actually saw was well before the millennium, and being ahead of most time zones here in Bali I might even sleep through several of them.