The moment my eyes saw the Indian Ocean my heart fluttered back to life, a silly smile spread across my sunburned face. I ran away to the beach to float in the turquoise water, dig feet into hot sand, sip cool water from a fresh coconut, paint the blue waves. Everything is right in my world again for a moment. I escaped the jungle to work on my laptop from the beach club bar. I stretched out time, floating and typing, waiting for the sunset. The sky turned peachy fire and I knew it was time to call a taxi and return to my white cottage in the jungle. Four hours driving for five hours at Melasti Beach, was worth it and my soul sighs, thank you.
The sunset turned the hot blue sky to soft shades of peace. The taxi driver wasn’t as impressed as I was; mid negotiation on what I’d pay for a taxi ride all the way from Melasti Beach up to Ubud and I’m looking up at the sky saying, “ouu pretty!” For me, everything stops for the sunset. Like in the jungle book when everyone how’s to the elephant parade as it stomps through. Yes, I drop whatever I’m doing and how to the sun. My jaw drops, my eyes lift, my whole body softens and all my priorities and values click back into place. Goodbye sunshine. I need you, I love you. I’m not here without you. I love being here with you. Your setting is a celebration of all that you are and I look forward to that moment in bed when the bird wake me up and I see you peeking in through my curtains, your gold smile shining.
Is this what we call white sand? Almost perfect spheres, I’d rather call them beads than grains, some white, some cream, some mustard yellow. My feet sink into this soft sand, smoothly embracing my feet, making it challenging for me to walk and leave the beach. Better for me to just lay in the warm water and dig my hands into the sand. I play with handfuls of this magical earth and it drifts away from me in sparkling clouds. My toes float just above the water, lines of gold light trace along the bottom.
This is one of my paradises. It is not this location that I call paradise. Paradise is this moment in which I am fully available to be present in this beautiful location.
Behind me at the bar (as I indulged in a watermelon juice and avocado chicken salad as the sunset!) a woman bickered and cried at a man…the entire time. Parts of me wanted to turn to her and say, “excuse me, ms. Lady? You’re missing the sunset.” There we were, side by side; she was in hell and I was in heaven.
My mind has become the beautiful looking glass through which I see a magical world. My body has become a safe space in which I feel pleasure and peace. My breath has become my medicine.
Love & Sunsets, Cha Wilde
Now I know I can do more. Now, can I do less?
