Bali...?
Wow, did I just dream all that????



I'm sitting here in the same internet cafe, at the same computer yet in different clothes with a slightly different perspective.
The little Korean girl working at the coffee shop internet cafe here at the Incheon Airpot looked at me as though she'd seen a ghost. 

(Hadn't she JUST seen my ass up in here just about 36 hours ago?)


Yep, it's me all right: tall Yank, dreadlocks, Venti soy mocha and some pockey sticks...


I sit here in the light of day as opposed to the intrigue of night I experienced a few days ago.
 I reflect upon the new things I saw and experienced here daily. Well, hourly, actually. Hell, I wasn't there enough days to use days as a distinction...face it, I basically, got here mere hours ago.
But as Jonathan Larson wrote, "...how do you measure a year in the life?"



I could just as easily NOT have made this trip because I wasn't here for a "substantial" amount of time. We all know the way to say it too, "If I go, I want to really GO and spend some TIME..."

This trip reminded me of something that I already knew, but now value in a whole new way.

The moments of ones life are simply that, MOMENTS. 

Even the best chapters of my life are really only comprised of moments....consecutive moments....consecutive moments of NOW. Why cheat myself of the "moments of my life" putting off til tomorrow all that waits for me NOW, while I wait for some grand "chapter of my life?"



I came on this trip because of love.


Two of my friends fell in love over years of communicating in the moment as they traveled over thousands of miles (they are both flight attendants) in a constant and intentional adventure. I guess you could say, they measured their life in frequent flyer miles, airport layovers, new adventures and cell phone bills.
During that time I found myself inspired by them powerfully and often.

The guy, Sandy is EXTREMELY inquisitive and the girl, Nicole is EXTREMELY thorough. So, as you can imagine, they ended up with a LOT to talk about. Conversations which led me to the doorway in which I chose to follow them when they decided to get married. When they were considering what kind of wedding they wanted, they chose to have their wedding be a vacation. For them, it's a month long celebration with the wedding in the middle, and for some of the guests it could last 2 weeks or more, but for me, all my schedule would allow was for me to be gone for 3 days.
Most would ask, why would you travel around the world for only 3 days?

Truth is, if you knew, even IMAGINED what I now know, that question would seem absurd.


Why wouldn't you travel around the world to spend 3 days in paradise?
 

Why wouldn't you travel around the world for 3 days of being appreciated, respected and revered for simply being you?
 

Why wouldn't you travel around the world for 3 days to sit among friends who would choose to join you in your travels?


Why wouldn't you travel around the world for 3 days to make new friends who are willing to travel around the world for the opportunity to meet you?


Why wouldn't you travel around the world for 3 days for love?


Wouldn't you travel around the world for 3 days for love?

More specifically...WOULD YOU travel around the world for 3 days for love?



I did...and it wasn't even MY relationship to experience, but it was my LIFE to experience and their love IN my life is now MY experience of LOVE in my life. That experience of love is as valid as any other I choose, and if I would be bold enough to do what THEY did for love, then I would have no need to covet or envy anyone's experience, or for that matter, to invalidate my own experience(s) of love, because I too HAVE love...depending upon how you measure it.


I choose to measure my life...in love.



I loved walking the streets of Ubud, a city which I'd never even HEARD of outside of reading about it in the book: EAT.PRAY.LOVE.


I loved getting 2 hour massages that were intense and only cost me 4 BUCKS!!!!


I loved being in a city where people smiled out of habit.

I loved the way people looked at me...no fear, judgment or disdain...just hope and friendliness.


I loved living right next to a rice paddy and seeing a kid flying kites in the rice paddies as if that was all life required.

I loved the many temples, too many to count, and the reverence and devotion that created and kept them loved and occupied.


I loved being near enough to some guy named Ketut Liyer that I could actually talk to him.

I loved that fact that the reason I didn't actually get to see him was because I didn't go to Bali to see him, he would've been an added benefit, but not the reason that called me there.
I traveled there for LOVE, and the couple wanted my presence for something else, and I loved, that for me, there was no choice more appealing except what Nicole and Sandy asked of me.



I loved the fact that the experience that I gave up meeting Ketut Liyer for was as important to me as meeting him might have been.

I loved that what they'd set up for me was that I meet the famous painter named Symon, who is an eccentric expatriate, who might well be the DALI of our time.


I loved the way I felt there.


I loved the things I saw there. 

I loved that for love sake and that alone, I chose this particular path, at this particular time...for just 3 days.



We've been told that Jesus, the Christ, died and was resurrected in 3 days...




Whether or not you actually believe in all that, Jesus Christ, the MAN did leave one experience of life and moved into another one, and now the memory of his one solitary life has been inspiring people for hundreds of years since.


I can kinda relate to that in a way I hadn't before.



Granted, I didn't get crucified...actually, quite the opposite. But I can relate to putting a lot at stake and being transformed in a short period of time.
 AND if I can inspire people by choosing to travel around the world for 3 days, for love...why wouldn't I choose it?


I'd be a fool not to.


Just like I'd be a fool not to let you know about it, and hope that it inspires you to reach out to this world and let it inspire you.



I'm coming back right now, and, God willing, I'll have fun, quick, stories to tell...but til then, just KNOW, that you, my friend, live in a world with more beauty in it than you can imagine, and as you sit there listening to OTHER people tell you how fucked up the world is, how dangerous it is, how frightening it is, how hopeless it is...remember that someone you know and care about, brought back a piece of that same world FOR YOU to remind you that there's more to this world…much more.
More life than you can imagine, and more love than you could possible contain.
Depending upon how you measure it.




....I say, measure your life in love.