Silence

Silence is blissful, distressing, revealing, and difficult to maintain. You may have noticed I haven’t written on this blog for over a month. I think that’s the longest I’ve ever gone. I’ve also been posting less on Facebook and Twitter.

When we decided to settle in Bali, I wanted the next year to be one of contemplation, inner growth, and self-discovery. (Yes, even more than usual.) The deeper I go, however, the more I realize how much I have to learn and how little I truly know about the world both within and around me. This mostly inner journey has taken much of my energy lately. And while interesting events continue to unfold in our lives, I haven’t been motivated to write about them. I want to share some of what I’m learning soon, but in the mean time, I know many of you out there still want to know what we’re doing, so I’ll summarize the major events in the past month.

We came back from Thailand in early December and are so happy to be back! It’s rainy season here in Bali now, so most days we get a nice downpour for a few hours, although the timing is not consistent like in Costa Rica. It could come any time of day or night.

The girls have started attending a homeschool group with other kids, which they’re enjoying quite a bit. Maybe I’ll write about this in another blog post and give more details there.

I’m still studying Ba Gua Qi Gong (Chi Kung) and am loving it! For those who don’t know, it’s a Chinese internal martial art and healing system similar to some styles of Tai Chi. It’s also a fantastic workout in the morning!

Qi Gong

We went to an Indonesia Spirit Festival with kids activities, and a kirtan later that night where we sang along to some fun Indian music with Punnu Wasu. Speaking of kirtan, I’ve been invited to play the harmonium at a kirtan and have been having a great time doing it! Before I came to Ubud, I didn’t know what “harmonium” and “kirtan” meant, so let me explain. The harmonium is like a 4-octave keyboard accordion that sits on the floor, and kirtan are sanscrit songs or chants sung with audience participation, at different tempos as a sort of meditation. Kind of like the hindu version of hymns.

Kirtan with Punnu Wasu

My mom, sister, and niece visited us for the holidays. We had so much fun together! The cousins couldn’t get enough of playing together, and swam in the pool as much as they could. We went to the beach, went shopping, dancing and hula hooping, did yoga, watched a Kecak Dance (you’ll see it below), visited the Elephant Cave Temple, the Bali Zoo, and celebrated Christmas and New Year’s together, including time for reflection and letting go of the old to welcome the new. We also spent a lot of time singing; in the car, in the house, and everywhere else. Here’s a little song we wrote one day (well, we wrote the words anyway). I was proud I could play it on the ukelele.

I’m so glad they could visit and that we had time to connect and share our lives and some wonderful memories together. I miss them already. Check out my mom and sister’s blogs for more upcoming posts about our time together, with some beautiful pictures. You can also see some pictures and videos I took below.