Home (magic).
Riding on the motorbike today. Each ravine a separate pocket, a whoosh of cloud and passing rain on our faces as we descend and then rise up again. Golden sawa everywhere patched with fields cut-bare. Stone-grey storms obscure horizons but this air is fresh and bright, if not blue, then pale. The scent of clove trees in bloom, blacker and more sultry than dried, and somehow more perverse. Neighbors wave, Pak S. brings green coconuts, we stop to order coffee.
Just shook out my long sleeve shirt before putting it on and a giant earwig came out of it, so… glad I did that.
I keep getting ahead of myself and while that might be good for future me, it doesn’t really help present me at all…
Good morning to all who celebrate. I want to tell you that I do not like “fun facts”. I don’t like facts very much at all. In order of preference I like person, story, argument, impression, fact. Not all translate easily into writing. Some are forever stuck between lines, and I like those the best.
Sayangku with sky.
Please find alternative ways to listen, don’t stream etc., because his catalogue is owned by Blackrock now and I’m not doing a commercial for that trash.
Soundtrack tonight is “Popular Problems” by Leonard Cohen. Didn’t like “Slow” when I first heard it but it’s grown on me, the song of an old man, but a very groovy one, and good at foreplay. “Almost Like the Blues” is sexy haunting alienation, just listen to it. “Samson” is devastating breakup/biblical nostalgia across international borders. “Did I Ever Love You” has broken grit and sweet angels singing the seasons. Alhamdulillah. You already know I love “My Oh My”, it’s as close as we get to happiness. “Nevermind” is classic Cohen doom noir/funk mantra so we’re ready when “Born in Chains” takes us down to the river. Blessed indeed. “You Got me Singing” is lovely and sweet as chantilly for dessert, if on the nose.. he does have a habit of finishing that way. Really this album is sublime. And easy to sing along with like old-timey church music. I miss you so much, Leonard.
Ah, the ecstatic occupation of finding the words for you!
The indulgence of sleeping through breakfast, sleeping and not just napping, enough sleep turns the old day into the new without questions. Already bright, the morning sits there, waits to be picked up. By me, or what happens to me, or the happy marriage of those, habit, practice, navigation, care.
Honey train.
Our mudik will be late this year, for “reasons”, we won’t go to Java until next week. A little sad to say “lahir dan batin” over video call. Like the trope of missing Christmas. So. Focus on Bali family now, and soon enough, be home for a marathon of mampir/little coffee reunions.
Do not go to war against ants; you will never win.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Selamat hari raya Idul Fitri🌙 In Indonesia it’s time for Muslims to celebrate Lebaran, the accomplishment of the month-long fast. For us, it means we mudik (go home to ancestral village), we visit the houses of family and neighbors and friends, we drink so many coffees and eat so many cookies and snacks, we sungkem (kiss the feet of) our parents, and to everybody we may have wronged, (which is everybody), we salim and say, “Mohon maaf lahir dan batin.”
Forgive me body and soul. Even as an (awkward, shy) newcomer, a poignant and humbling exchange that has brought tears to my eyes in the receiving and giving, a days-long flooding of the soul with gratitude. At once to discover and to satisfy a deep longing for reconciliation with one’s own people, the others with whom one belongs. Cleansing us, if for a precious and rarified moment, of the ten thousand niggling obstacles to trust. A mantra of community spoken again and again, a making by saying, threads that will hold us together for another year. Alhamdulillah. Amin.
Sri Rejeki with crispy leaf.
Past 8pm here and over 240 million Indonesian Muslims are still waiting to hear if they can eat tomorrow, this blows my mind.
*edited to change from 420 to 240, typo haha
Finished third day of yoga (switched rest day to Eid), feeling strong, fed and watered myself, texted mom back about eclipse, enough. Clouds moving in for afternoon storms, it’s 3 again and dark. Cats (and E) asleep. The sounds of starting rain. Nobody needing. Cozy socks on. Curl under cotton blanket. Heavy eyelids don’t wait for permission.
Jeki plays with a huge bendo leaf (artocarpus elasticus) that came down in yesterday’s storm, jumps at the “crispy” sounds it makes. Delighted if she’ll be in today’s photo prompt. Couldn’t post a pic of tempe goreng, I have my limits. May eat some for dinner but I don’t want to get my blog greasy.
Forget the fantasy of a universal clock. No announcement yet of Eid al-fitr, waiting for local communication of the ulama watching the moon. Google put it on the 9th and I was fooled, again, aduh. All these plans. Could be not until the 11th, two more days. Time is conditional, (especially in Indonesia), unpredictable, unbusinesslike, following the lunar rule, a silvery sliver of borrowed light.
Precipitation prevention (from going out).