A brief note before today’s post.
On June 23, Don and I left to Portugal for a time of rest, renewal, adventure, and simply being together. When I return, I will be leading an in-house Heart of Leadership course.
After two years of writing The Heart of Sacred Listening: Transform Your Relationships, Your Work, and Your Life, followed by publishing it and then launching it into the world, it feels like the right moment to step away for a little while, take a deep breath, and give myself a pause as I cross this inner and outer threshold before returning home to whatever is waiting next.
While I am away, I will be sharing a few of my favorite essays from the archives, starting with this one, which is perfect, as this post is all about travel, and the last adventure we were on last year.
I chose the archived posts carefully. Each one has stayed with me for a reason.
I have found that when we revisit a conversation, a poem, or a story at a different moment in our lives, we often hear something entirely new. We see with different eyes. We listen with different ears. What did not touch us before suddenly does.
My intention is that these reflections will meet you exactly where you are and offer companionship, insight, encouragement, or perhaps simply a quiet moment of pause.
It is a privilege to share these reflections with you, and I look forward to returning in August with new stories, new experiences, and, no doubt, new things to listen for together.
If these reflections speak to you, please feel free to share them with others you love.
Thank you for traveling this path with me.
There is inner travel and outer travel.
While most of these postings have concerned themselves with inner travel, this is different.
I have always held (outer) travel as a unique opportunity for discovery, exploration, and learning. Learning the ways, the nature of, the thinking, and the behaviors of people who think differently than I do, who have different norms, and who have been brought up in a different culture. When I travel, I am beyond curious: I intentionally cultivate a commitment to wonder.
The amazing, extraordinary trip my husband and I just completed during the month of November from Bali to Bangkok by ship, with five days in Bali, five days in Bangkok, 3 days in Singapore, and many day stops in between – Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, was just that – amazing. Filled with the newness of new lives, new ways of being, ways of living, new sights, sounds, and smells.
I invite you to join me, through light touching, with photos, through this posting, in the adventure.
The depth of the welcome, people’s openness to share, the warm smiles, forthcoming embraces, gift-giving, and heart extensions were prominent as we discovered, leaned into, and allowed ourselves to be amazed by what we uncovered.
In a world where people have been killing one another over religious differences for years and years, the people of these lands, and their way of life, gave us an opening to visit a world oriented in a different direction.
Throughout Indonesia, people of different religious persuasions live alongside and embrace one another in the same neighborhoods. In Thailand, while predominantly a Buddhist country, the Buddhist temples, Muslim mosques, and Christian churches often stand side by side.
In Bangkok, we were walking through an art neighborhood when we stumbled upon a Buddhist temple with monks chanting. We delighted in people selling their produce and wares on the canal, the open floral markets. We were awed by the beautiful gold Buddhas that abound in the city.
The Grand Palace, a vast compound of palaces and temples, was the location where Governess Anna and the King of Siam (yes, from the movie) actually met – true story.
Then, there are the wooden houses on stilts and plumeria trees, with homes built right on the canals and goods conveyed down it. And, if that weren’t enough, a ginormous Buddha along the canal.
In Kuala Lumpur, the indigenous Mah Meri Malaysians – former sea nomads – live in villages overseen by a shaman. We were treated to a unique mask dance to honor the ancestors.
In Singapore, the world’s only island city-state, the cleanliness of the streets, the super technology, the astounding architecture of the buildings, and the 30 million trees (yes!) and countless flowers of the Gardens by the Bay astounded us with their beauty, entranced us with their uniqueness (brought in from all over the world). A “ship” or “surfboard” spanning three hotels at 58 stories high greeted us throughout our perambulations of the central district. From the top, as we took the elevator up to the “prow of the ship,” the view was amazing.
In Bali, altars are everywhere. Here, the Hindu culture predominates. Even in the colorful market stalls, people light their incense, and altars are in every stall.
Ganesh prevailed. Ganesh– the Indian elephant god who provides and then removes obstacles, predominated as a spirit and a figurehead.
In Ubud, the artist and cultural center of Bali, temples abound in each block. Each family has an enclave that includes a temple for that family. Then there is a “village temple” in each village that villagers (not outsiders) all go to. Then there is a larger public temple that extends for approximately a block and is open to the public. All the temples are beautiful and entrancing.
It was hot. Both the food and the weather.
It was intense. It was exhausting and wild.
At one point, a monkey in the Jungle Forest of Ubud jumped onto my lap as I rested from long hours of walking with my husband. I was delighted! Then, I discovered he was after my necklace! Fortunately, Don brushed him off, and we were able to leave with only a minor scratch, a little “love note!”
Now, I give myself some time to integrate, to be with, to complete, and to look with new eyes and see what I see from here as I start my next inner traveling, the creation of my new future.
The world is beautiful. Both the inner and the outer, when we see it with a clear heart.
The world is beautiful. Both the inner and the outer, when we see it with a clear heart.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.