Currently listening to : http://8tracks.com/saskpirate88/stargazing , El Ten Eleven comes highly reccomended.
___________________
Malaysia. Diversity. Separation. Fights for gender equality and the freedom and right to love who you choose. Urban Gardening movements sprawling across the city. Musicians cloaked in every colour of the prism-reflecting sun. Nationalities hawking side by side for a chance to get by in the city of Kuala Lumpur (KL), where some are under the impression that it is the city, that there is not other, that Malaysia is the Kingdom. It is an amalgamation of worlds, of passions for and against; it is the microcosm of the macrocosm that we live in, pushing and pulling everyone together and apart and it is only the choices of the people that keep this in constant flux.
To be around this, submerged into it, is to see the world and to feel it; to feel the immense and limitless possibilities that face us each day, it is to show you how to choose, how to trust that the direction you are taking isn't the 'right or the wrong' direction, but it is simply a direction, and where it leads you will, undoubtedly, inevitably, affect the tributaries of the gigantic river you are swimming in.
Any city can be this. But How did I get here? In exactly that manner, I chose without 'choosing', I didn't over analyse or plan rigorously, I mapped out a skeleton for myself and learnt to trust that elusive thing some call 'intuition' and others might call 'blind faith', bravery/foolishness. Only in this way, did I find something I didn't expect, did I happen upon people and plants that took my breath away.
I chose first, a small farm named Si Souk in Ubon Ratchathani where I attended the Thailand Wisdom Gathering, then Koh Lipe, an Island where I cleaned up trash & had the privelege of teaching kids how to tell stories through photography with my dearest friends Lindsay & Scott at World Story Exchange and of course Trash Hero. Yet little did I know, that after all of this, I would find myself nestled comfortably and excitedly on a small permaculture farm (an undeclared ecovillage) called Kebun Kaki Bukit (KKB) , out the outskirts of the town of Kuala Selangor.
________________________________
I landed here after having recovered from severe heat exhaustion, cooped up, but being looked after in a beautiful backpackers by a beautiful travelling-sistah Nina at BirdsNest Guesthouse in KL.
The night before Nina & I took the taxi to the farm, we arrived at 9pm in the pitch-navy dark, we had to walk 2 kms down the side of the highway to find a motel that was in our price range and clean enough for us to feel like we wouldn't get horribly sick again. We managed and to our absolute glee it was right next to a tiny restaurant that prized itself in making fresh juices, we took full advantage of this!
The next day, I formed an scene that repeats itself in my mind, we walked onto the property of KKB, led by an almond-eye American woman (Alyssa) , we passed people lying silently on a bamboo deck to our left and walked next to a fence lined with towering Palm trees to a huge framework, half completed, mud-house structure, where lying on the wall, a dark haired brown skinned man watched me, (Gordon), a man covered head to toe in mud, green eyes shining through so much that my heart leapt at the site of this pixie (Nico) , a blonde haired ponytailed man with a strong build squatted staring up at me (Jafar) and a blue-eyed woman sitting against a tree joined in their stares, her eyes piercing me immediately (Sapphire) ; these four and more would become my family for the next two months. But at this point, I was frightened, I was still shaky from my illness and I only intended to stay for a couple of days.
____________________-
I washed dishes first, instead of joining the after dinner discussions. Then I made a point to bring out my paint (thanks for the blessing Lindsay) to break tensions and communicate differently. I painted Sapph
ire's face while Gordon painted his own arms.
The next day I played a guitar and sang about a newly loved exotic fruit, Soursop and every breath I took to form a sentence, every glance I shared with the people I was beginning to know, was acknowledged, was not judged; I felt free, this was going to be a longer stay than I thought.
_______________________________-
I could weave detail upon detail but I'd have to write a small novel (perhaps I will!) , but I'll only share these few pieces of what I experienced in the light of an experiment in communal living.
The non-blood family forms quickly, you work together, you breathe together, you sing together, you dance together, you plant together, you cook together, you build compost toilets together, you indulge together, you formulate a society outside of society, you are practising creating your ideal life, one heartbeat at a time.
No rules, no obligations, only what you choose to be doing, or what you are capable of doing and what the community will benefit from. It was my perfect kind of university. A non hierarchical, collectivist run , non authoritarian, wisdom & skill building motivated group of 20-somethings that believe in change, believe in an alternative way of living and loving.
You can teach yourself anything you want to learn, with the multitude of resources over the world wide web and in books and thoughts brought from people all over the world. We have the ability to expand eachother's minds and skillsets simply by allowing each other to be exactly who we choose to be, with the beautiful acceptance that change is a constant.
Every few days the dynamics of the farm would shift drastically. New people brought new energy, new capability, new conversation, we had to be prepared for this and so the cultivation of non-attachment began to develop with the passing spirits that moved in and out of the farm. We loved each other so deeply, and still do , because we gave each other the chance to relax, to connect and to share and to withdraw when necessary. We were experimenting, so it didn't always feel easy or smooth, we had moments where had to confront each other and explain and reveal our insecurities, our challenges, and with that, we always came to a new way of weaving the community together, all 12 + of us, the global nomadic citizens.
When I wanted to dance in the rain naked, I did, and others joined me. When someone wanted to bake an extravagant dessert in the wood fired, clay oven, they did and we found the wood. When someone wanted to show the other person how much they loved them, they did and everyone supported that.
I fell in love too. With a friend. A brother in radiance. So expansively and honestly. I feel like that's a different story, but it is one in the same, I only want to separate it because I want to hold onto it, I don't want the dream to fade, I want to climb back into it and nestle down, but despite whatever transpires in the future between us. I learnt to love open heartedly, I learnt to be completely vulnerable and open, I learnt that I want to stand fearlessly with someone in the center of the fire and not shrink back.
Now I am not with them anymore and my heart is split into pieces. I am aching but I am puzzling myself together with the painstaking knowledge that this was temporary (even though I still believe, in some depths of me, that it is eternal) and I have learnt some of the greatest lessons and I hope you will take yourself out to the world and meet it and let it meet you, dance with it and let it dance with you.
Love fearlessly
Support each other endlessly
Grow & Build things together
Listen and Share
Be BRAVE , be COURAGEOUS
Speak your TRUTH
...........................................and even if it hurts to goddammned hell, even if flowers bloom from the very skin on your fingertips, DO IT and your life will become richer and fuller and louder and more alive, and you will know who you are because you took yourself away from yourself and out into the lives of the starsouls, the human race that is aching to know you.
___________________
Malaysia. Diversity. Separation. Fights for gender equality and the freedom and right to love who you choose. Urban Gardening movements sprawling across the city. Musicians cloaked in every colour of the prism-reflecting sun. Nationalities hawking side by side for a chance to get by in the city of Kuala Lumpur (KL), where some are under the impression that it is the city, that there is not other, that Malaysia is the Kingdom. It is an amalgamation of worlds, of passions for and against; it is the microcosm of the macrocosm that we live in, pushing and pulling everyone together and apart and it is only the choices of the people that keep this in constant flux.
To be around this, submerged into it, is to see the world and to feel it; to feel the immense and limitless possibilities that face us each day, it is to show you how to choose, how to trust that the direction you are taking isn't the 'right or the wrong' direction, but it is simply a direction, and where it leads you will, undoubtedly, inevitably, affect the tributaries of the gigantic river you are swimming in.
Any city can be this. But How did I get here? In exactly that manner, I chose without 'choosing', I didn't over analyse or plan rigorously, I mapped out a skeleton for myself and learnt to trust that elusive thing some call 'intuition' and others might call 'blind faith', bravery/foolishness. Only in this way, did I find something I didn't expect, did I happen upon people and plants that took my breath away.
I chose first, a small farm named Si Souk in Ubon Ratchathani where I attended the Thailand Wisdom Gathering, then Koh Lipe, an Island where I cleaned up trash & had the privelege of teaching kids how to tell stories through photography with my dearest friends Lindsay & Scott at World Story Exchange and of course Trash Hero. Yet little did I know, that after all of this, I would find myself nestled comfortably and excitedly on a small permaculture farm (an undeclared ecovillage) called Kebun Kaki Bukit (KKB) , out the outskirts of the town of Kuala Selangor.
________________________________
The night before Nina & I took the taxi to the farm, we arrived at 9pm in the pitch-navy dark, we had to walk 2 kms down the side of the highway to find a motel that was in our price range and clean enough for us to feel like we wouldn't get horribly sick again. We managed and to our absolute glee it was right next to a tiny restaurant that prized itself in making fresh juices, we took full advantage of this!
The next day, I formed an scene that repeats itself in my mind, we walked onto the property of KKB, led by an almond-eye American woman (Alyssa) , we passed people lying silently on a bamboo deck to our left and walked next to a fence lined with towering Palm trees to a huge framework, half completed, mud-house structure, where lying on the wall, a dark haired brown skinned man watched me, (Gordon), a man covered head to toe in mud, green eyes shining through so much that my heart leapt at the site of this pixie (Nico) , a blonde haired ponytailed man with a strong build squatted staring up at me (Jafar) and a blue-eyed woman sitting against a tree joined in their stares, her eyes piercing me immediately (Sapphire) ; these four and more would become my family for the next two months. But at this point, I was frightened, I was still shaky from my illness and I only intended to stay for a couple of days.
____________________-
I washed dishes first, instead of joining the after dinner discussions. Then I made a point to bring out my paint (thanks for the blessing Lindsay) to break tensions and communicate differently. I painted Sapph
ire's face while Gordon painted his own arms.
The next day I played a guitar and sang about a newly loved exotic fruit, Soursop and every breath I took to form a sentence, every glance I shared with the people I was beginning to know, was acknowledged, was not judged; I felt free, this was going to be a longer stay than I thought.
I could weave detail upon detail but I'd have to write a small novel (perhaps I will!) , but I'll only share these few pieces of what I experienced in the light of an experiment in communal living.
The non-blood family forms quickly, you work together, you breathe together, you sing together, you dance together, you plant together, you cook together, you build compost toilets together, you indulge together, you formulate a society outside of society, you are practising creating your ideal life, one heartbeat at a time.
No rules, no obligations, only what you choose to be doing, or what you are capable of doing and what the community will benefit from. It was my perfect kind of university. A non hierarchical, collectivist run , non authoritarian, wisdom & skill building motivated group of 20-somethings that believe in change, believe in an alternative way of living and loving.
You can teach yourself anything you want to learn, with the multitude of resources over the world wide web and in books and thoughts brought from people all over the world. We have the ability to expand eachother's minds and skillsets simply by allowing each other to be exactly who we choose to be, with the beautiful acceptance that change is a constant.
Every few days the dynamics of the farm would shift drastically. New people brought new energy, new capability, new conversation, we had to be prepared for this and so the cultivation of non-attachment began to develop with the passing spirits that moved in and out of the farm. We loved each other so deeply, and still do , because we gave each other the chance to relax, to connect and to share and to withdraw when necessary. We were experimenting, so it didn't always feel easy or smooth, we had moments where had to confront each other and explain and reveal our insecurities, our challenges, and with that, we always came to a new way of weaving the community together, all 12 + of us, the global nomadic citizens.
When I wanted to dance in the rain naked, I did, and others joined me. When someone wanted to bake an extravagant dessert in the wood fired, clay oven, they did and we found the wood. When someone wanted to show the other person how much they loved them, they did and everyone supported that.
I fell in love too. With a friend. A brother in radiance. So expansively and honestly. I feel like that's a different story, but it is one in the same, I only want to separate it because I want to hold onto it, I don't want the dream to fade, I want to climb back into it and nestle down, but despite whatever transpires in the future between us. I learnt to love open heartedly, I learnt to be completely vulnerable and open, I learnt that I want to stand fearlessly with someone in the center of the fire and not shrink back.
Now I am not with them anymore and my heart is split into pieces. I am aching but I am puzzling myself together with the painstaking knowledge that this was temporary (even though I still believe, in some depths of me, that it is eternal) and I have learnt some of the greatest lessons and I hope you will take yourself out to the world and meet it and let it meet you, dance with it and let it dance with you.
Love fearlessly
Support each other endlessly
Grow & Build things together
Listen and Share
Be BRAVE , be COURAGEOUS
Speak your TRUTH
...........................................and even if it hurts to goddammned hell, even if flowers bloom from the very skin on your fingertips, DO IT and your life will become richer and fuller and louder and more alive, and you will know who you are because you took yourself away from yourself and out into the lives of the starsouls, the human race that is aching to know you.
