windy and fun

the wind is so strong....i had to leave the sea now....amazing!
this morning the swiss woman (hadda ) picked me up at 7;30 and we dared to walk along the shore...that is slowly disappearing because of the strong weather they are having...but she was very determined, and it was nice and we got quite far...meeting along the way a local with a kiosk with fast food for the villagers to start the day off (steamed bananas, fried bananas, coconut milk, other fried foods....) and as soon as she saw us, she reached into her bag of tricks and wiped out 10 strands of pearls and tried again and again to sell us some pearls...no matter how much hadda showed her empty pockets and that we are on a walk without any money...she just smiled again and again and tried to persuade us to buy some pearls, no? and i was amazed that hadda just kept smiling and laughing too, and telling her she has no money with her...without getting annoyed with her in the least, or ignoring her...it was quite impressive for me to see how they could each continue to be proactive instead of reactive...neither taking the others comment personally...
on the way back along the street we stopped at a local nursery for plants and it was set up so lovely, just like someones garden...and we had a nice look around it, hadda has been a florist for 30 years! i laughed when she told me this, since i have just started my florist business... coincidence?!?! so, i think i may ask her to give me lessons in bouquet making. she said that there are many different styles and fashion trends that change all through the years...so i will try and barter with her somehow for that.

as we returned i noticed that the ducks were no longer fenced in and were in the paddies, and i wonder how the duck "herder'(?!) gets them to follow him to one specific paddie?! and the best part of this trip so far, is that everytime a question arises, the answer is soon to follow...so that is fun too.

and the last part of the walk was just before entering the compound of the resort i heard the gamelon again, in the air,,,and looked around and saw that my rice farmer was in his little thatched platform playing, so i went over to watch and listen...it turned out that it was his son, who is also excellent,,,and as the tractor man was plowing the paddies, so he was there playing (to bring pleasure to him, or for himself?!)and it was lovely...i stood there trying to place the sounds on an invisible scale in the air with my hand ( like i saw batia matan do when she taught music) and tried to figure out how many times each note and was it rising or descending etc...quite difficult to follow...and quick to the scene was madie, who spotted me and she came over too...i am always a little wary of her because she is a real wheeler dealer, and together with that i would like to believe she has my best interests in mind (too...) and she quickly suggested to him that he let me try too, so i climbed up and it was such a surprise: he grabbed my two hands strongly and forced them to play the music as if he was playing it, having placed the two sticks that they are hit with in my hands...and i suddenly remembered how when i went to tosha and davids wedding in yodfat, her father, my uncle, asked me to dance a ballroom dance with him, i laughed and said i don't know how, and he just said, let go and let me just lead you...and it worked...and i saw that if i made even the slightest effort or had any will of my own, i was stumbling over his feet and going in the wrong direction,,,and so i quickly relaxed my hands and let go of my will and desire to learn and succeed, and with limp hands, let him gong away at the bamboo keys... it was an interesting effort to be making...we did that for a while, and then he tried a different method..."follow the leader" he played over and over again, then gave me the bamboo sticks and told me to try. i managed to pick it up pretty quickly and he was happy, and then he did the same tune faster...what a joke for me, but what i saw again and again was that i needed to use as little force as possible and be as relaxed as possible and that my fingers and hands are like "servants" and not "masters",they just release all ambition, desire, need, just "trust" and then it can unfold itself.... then he tried a tune with 2 hands follow the leader...which was way over my head, but i tried, and we laughed, and then again a simple 4 note rhythm which is fascinating because the count is so different than anything western that i have heard...i wonder if that is what makes it so attractive to me, and the high notes of it all...anyways, his father soon showed up too, and said that in another 5 days he will be finished making mine and then i can study with his son...we shall see...and as i walked back along the very narrow paths between each paddie, sinking into the fresh mud that meant they were damming up a part that had been open ( so sensuous...like soft wet black clay!) i stopped and heard his son continuing to play some melodies, and the thought crossed my mind that this may be a type of meditation....it just goes on and on and on, and pretty much repeats itself but in quite complicated series, i remember having one drum lesson with eyal, which was the same type of experience for me, of needing to totally let go of succeeding or thinking, and just allow a force to "play through me" without "doing"....and it is quite interesting.

another question that arose when hadda and i were walking, was that at other guestless resorts here and there, (off season? weather? money?) the workers were busy SWEEPING! the wind was blowing so strong, and there they were, SWEEPING!! and i was in shock how that is what everyone is doing ALL the time, (when they are not busy smiling...and asking you where you are going and where you came from) and i wondered what this obsession with sweeping could possibly mean??!! and then i suddenly (thank you god again) remembered that when i was in northern thailand visiting a famous potter, he had built a pottery for the villagers from his village, in order to give whoever would ever need a job, a place to work...all simple people, that were training to be potters, including all the chores involved: kneading clay, on the wheel, making glazes, running the shop, etc...and he said that the first thing they do every morning is sweep the leaves for the first half hour...i asked him why? and he said that it is a way to meditate....after they have been in this repetitive, quiet, rhythmic movement, then they are ready to start work...and that they do not know how to meditate, and would not understand the importance of it, so this is their way....and i have a feeling that it is the same with all of the balinese here...old, young...SWEEP.....