Channeling Mary

After writing about my less-than-stellar Chef’s (umm) Surprise, I reflected on the experience, talked it over with my friend Sherry, and decided that it was perhaps time to let go and accept what the universe was telling me, what it may have in store for me.

But it’s a lesson that doesn’t come easy. I’ve never been accustomed to living the easy life, never used to having a maid wait on me, clean for me, a butler, a cook or chauffeur do what I could always do for myself – never mind that I didn’t grow up in that type of home or with that mentality. In fact, from a young age, I was reared to tidy my room and bathroom even BEFORE the cleaning lady came so that she didn’t have to deal with anything extra.

But I’m thinking now that perhaps it’s time to let go and accept that the universe might have had something in store for me, with the accident, by guiding me to Bali – where a pembantu (maid) and driver are perfectly acceptable and affordable accoutrements to an expat’s existence. (Not to say that exploitation and underpayment don’t exist, like elsewhere…)

Perhaps it is time for me to indulge my inner domestic diva – who does very little all. Maybe I need to embrace a bit of the pampered princess philosophy. Somewhat like Lady Mary Josephine Crawley, from the acclaimed British series Downton Abbey (which I’ve been watching, unabashedly, in bits and bytes the past month) does, in conversation with her sister Lady Ethel:

Ethel: Maybe I should take up cooking?

Mary (a look of utter horror crossing her face): Why would you want to do THAT?!

Ethel: It might come in handy sometime.

Handy indeed. Well cooking, washing, ironing etc have indeed come in handy for decades… but maybe now it’s time to turn in ‘handy’ for… a handyman. As in pembantu, driver, gardener, etc.

Turning over this leaf requires asking of the universe that it also bless me with abundance in other parts of my life so as to make it all possible.

And so I turn this over to you, Dear Universe, to let the gods, my angels, the spirits, the divine, be my guides. Lead me down the path to abundance, in all possible ways, so that I – and my body – may be able to do what I/it can, and not one bit more.

Though living the vida aristocracia goes against every grain of my upbringing and sense of independence, it may be time for me to switch lanes; make offerings to the gods, pray and pour holy water over myself, and adopt the unlikely moniker: M’Lady. Or, as long as I remain in Bali: Anak Agung Ayu Amit.

Amen.