The Year That Was

Today marks 365 days since I first landed in Bali. A year of living daily, creatively, ceremoniously, adventurously, openly, warmly, holistically, healthfully, and yes gaily (ie joyfully!!). I celebrated by indulging in: an extraordinarily delicious piece of carrot cake (at A’s house), a deep tissue (and deeply painful) massage, and finally dinner down the street with J.

After living in Ubud for a year, here is a smattering of what I now believe to be true (or have come to understand):

1. Coconut water – not Coca Cola – is the real thing.

2. I don’t actually live alone. I live with cecaks, tokeks, butterflies, spiders, dragonflies and yes, even the occasional cat.

3. I much prefer waking up to the sounds of gamelan music and priests’ bells rather than an alarm clock.

4. Yoga is a work-in, not a work-out. (Thanks to Linda for this illumination!)

5. I can manage just fine without a single item of fleece (or down jacket, scarf & mittens) in my wardrobe. Same goes for closed shoes and insulated boots.

6. Roosters and chickens grow on trees. Or, if they don’t, at the very least they like to hide out among the branches and poop on the heads of unsuspecting passersby.

7. A perfectly acceptable way of lulling children to sleep, at all hours of the day and night, is to take them out for a ride – on a motorbike.

8. A Balinese dog is not really a dog; it’s a motion detector (more on this theory later).

9. I’m in good company at the laundry where I occasionally drop off my stuff; the highest-rated restaurant in Ubud does so too.

10. Where else in the world do men sign up for a competition where the grand prize is a motorbike, and the second prize is… a cow?!

And so, my blessing-filled, never-a-dull-moment life in Bali, for which I am so grateful, now moves into Year Two…