NATURE AND CULTURE
Beauty Embedded in a Boat
A poem about ancestors, embedded in a story. Moments in time can take your breath away. The clouds cover the sun, but he peeps through anyway.
We had just traveled over the mountain on our rented scooters. From Ubud to Lovina on Bali. It was a challenging ride. Narrow, steep roads. Deep ravines. And my vertigo definitely didn’t help.
Although I’m normally a rather calm person, this was the first time Mike heard me cursing big time. I was sh*tting seven colors, as we say in Dutch.
Upon arrival, we sat by the ocean. And this was our picture. The clouds. The sun peeping through. And the fishing boats.
I knew why I was here. At last. I had come home in the country of my great-grandmother. Strange. Tropical. Challenging. But still home.
And I wrote this poem.
My Genes Remember
My genes remember my ancestors who gave me life.
My mother’s mother, my father’s father.
And way, way back the others.
Nameless people, living ordinary lives.
Loving, caring, raising their children to become loving, caring parents too.
Their cells rooted in local nature.
Their heads filled with local wisdom.
Their bones feeding the local soil.
How about me? Where’s my home?
Can it be somewhere I’d never been before?
Born and raised in cool Northern Europe, how can my body be at home in this girdle of emerald?
Smelling tropical smells, tasting tropical tastes, hearing tropical birdsong?
Home is where my heart is.
And right now my heart is confused.
Confused by the clouds and the sun peeping through.
The beauty of this moment is embedded in a boat and in sunrays wanting to escape.
My heart knows the answer.
My head might follow.
For most, Bali is an island of surfing, souvenirs, and alcohol. Loud tourists flock the streets of luxury villages in the south of the island. That’s not where we go.
Our Bali is different. We like to connect to locals. We have the most wonderful conversations with village people building a Barong.
A Barong is a mythological animal that they build with a community. The building takes over a month. After the physical activity of building, they attract a wise spirit to enter the animal.
They offer food and tiny goodies packed in banana leaves for the Barong, their houses, and also the river. The spirits in the animal and nature will help keep the community healthy and happy.
We drink local fruit juices. The fruit is wonderful in Indonesia! Sweet like I never tasted before.
We eat with many an Ibu (Mother) who cooks for us with love.
For me, Bali has been the island of bamboo buildings. Of regenerative rice farming. Of Hinduist offerings and dragons.
Balis has been the place where I gave a talk at the Green School Bali. Inspiring local people with Blue Economy examples from around the world. We met young Sheila, who wanted to change the world with local waste projects.
We discussed the opportunities of becoming a self-sufficient island. Creating a local, vibrant economy without having to rely on loud tourists.
And we drank, slept, and ate tropical nature.
Three months in this beautiful, welcoming Asian country made me a wiser woman. I landed in my body, my mind, and my soul. Thank you, Indonesia!
If you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or my website. Or somewhere talking to the sun and the clouds, building up my wisdom…
Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words.
