5 Things: Week 7
1. Okay, maybe if I take down the gates around Sunday and allow/encourage myself to post once a week, regardless of day, I'll do a better job of staying on top of regular posting.
2. It's the eve of my 29th birthday. 2 hours to go. I'm sitting on the porch of Emma and Michelle's bungalow, just next to mine on Bovy Beach. Duncan, Brooke, and Rashaun are also here; David and Jo stopped by on their quest for snacks. I love this little community and how it feels like coming home at the end of the day. We're all sitting, quiet, in our own worlds, on our own devices - but that's what this life is about, I'm realizing. The community they keep talking about is the group of people you can sit silently with in a circle, the Thai breeze gliding off the ocean, as you do work, and send emails, and journal, and meditate at 10 pm because you've spent the day enjoying the island. We're listening to the wind and this song, and it's just too damn cinematic.
3. I had a moment with the sun. It was on Sunday (appropriate) and with 20 minutes or so before it dropped behind the horizon, I stood in the soft lapping waters within the broad path running from the glowing clouds above and the shimmering reflection below. It vibrated.
4. Bovy has pets; we've all been adopted. These include:
- Fido/Roxie/Maimai (she's got a lot of names) - she's the alpha. A white scruff with brown grey patches and a pushy attitude. She scampers along, walking you home or to the borders of her territory. Nips at your fingers when she wants to play and chases after ropes like a kitten. Aggressively begs for food, and will do tricks for Michelle. Gnaws on seashells. Curls up on your blanket, her back to yours.
- Sunny - Quiet, sheepish. Protective but subservient to the packorder. Caramel brown with black tips on her droopy ears and the far edges of her tail; she has a pointed face like Indie, probably part Pariah Dog. She walks to our stairs, and scratches to announce her appearance, but she won't come up to our porch. When you come down to her, she rolls over for belly rubs and noses around for snacks.
- Wolfdog - Thick, black fur; a bottlebrush tail with brown bristles. Short, square, like a black lab, border collie, and corgie mixed. She spends most the day under my house, afraid of Maimai's wrath. Only late at night, when she's cold and lonely - or in the midst of a monsoon does she brave the risk of our company. She inches closer, pressing her head into your hands, or barely touches your feet as she settles in to take shelter from the storm. When you pet her, she trembles. She wants human love and affection so desperately, and yet it clearly terrifies her.
- Matilda - A young orange tabby cat. Came with Brooke's apartment, and was domesticated by our drive to care for something as a desperate proxy for caring for ourselves. She's filled out since we've arrived. She gets bits of leftovers and sleeps on everyone's porch chairs and sneaks in when the door is left open and is perfectly happy to nap on a laptop.
- Anita's cats - Matilda's parents have moved into Anita's room. They meow when their water bowl is empty and are never too far from her footpath.
- Mason - Billy, our resident Dog Whisperer, has been making his way into an animal shelter in both cities we've been to so far. In the Koh Phangan center, PACS, he found the sweetest puppy, suffering from nerve damage caused by too many tick bites and fever. While this particular ailment would be treated with relative ease in the US, in Thailand that's not the case. Sweet, soft beige, doe-eyed Mason was doomed, and Billy brought him home to give him a better chance, or at least a little more love and comfort at the end of his life. The former won out, and it turns out that love, time, and attention can bring a puppy back to life. He still stumbles, and gets the shakes like he's always hiccuping - but he's eating and walking and playing and cuddling with gusto.
5. His Majesty, King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away one week ago, ending a 70 year reign and striking a seismic shift in the Thai national identity. He was beloved, and even that is an understatement. The country's patriarch, also something of a god. Thailand is in mourning. The people are wearing black and white, bars are closed, parties (including the notoriously debauched Full Moon Party - here on Koh Phangan which, somehow, I had plans to attend) have been canceled. This is a sad and remarkable time to be in the country. I'm interested to see how different regions are reacting and will have the chance to experience it once I head back to my beloved Chiang Mai later this week.