5 Things: Week 8
1. I'm on a plane, somewhere over the north of Thailand on my way to Myanmar for a girl’s trip with friends (including an 8 year old badass young gal) from Singapore. The clouds outside all the windows are a uniform back-lit gray for an hour, until the soft rose-gold glow of the sunset presses through. It feels like this is the only moment I’ve had in the last 8 or 9 days to pause and write. It’s amazing this perpetual working vacation, we’re on, but also exhausting – if exhausting is this right word for something so generative.
2. My 29th birthday was just one week ago, and it was magical. In the days leading up to it, I’d felt a kind of clear-headed open-mindedness that I hadn’t realized I was missing. Maybe it was the glow and pull of the full moon; especially the night I spent gazing with Emma and Duncan, entranced with its magnetic power over the clouds – and, when they finally parted, a bright intensity so direct, it was almost as if it was peering back at us. The cold white light washed over me and I was calm. A woman seizing life on the eve of her 29th birthday.
The day was exactly as I wanted it to be. An invigorating yoga class that put me back in my body, a silly and loving videochat with my parents, a long luxurious Middle Eastern brunch (shakshouka!), a Belgian Beer with my feet in the pool, and a massage before my birthday party.
Starting with our grand welcome to KL, our Remote Year leaders instituted a tradition that we each become responsible for the celebration of the person with the birthday after ours. They’ve been pretty spot on so far – a range of parties and gifts and projects that match the personality and preferences of each Remote as they grow a year older on this journey.
My party was drinks (a shot of vodka in a fresh coconut: delish, try it), at sunset, on Secret Beach, one of my favorite spots on Koh Phagnan. 20 some-odd Remotes showed up, we played around in the surf with flower garlands in our hair, and had dinner at the long table (swoon) in the restaurant, which looks something like Peter Pan and the Lost Boy’s hideaway in Neverland – little coves, swings over the ocean, wooden lanterns and fireflies. Then it was back home to Bovy Beach for a bonfire.
If you know me at all, you know how perfect it was. What a beautiful way to welcome a new year of my extraordinarily fortunate life.
3. I finally started digging into the Thailand selection for book club so I have something to say at our meeting next week before we leave. I wish I had started it earlier – it’s a series of short stories that give quick glimpses into different lives people lead throughout this very diverse country – including so many that I’d never be able to engage or empathize with otherwise. It’s only one small book, but my only perspective of Thailand has been from deep within tourism. Even ‘living’ on Koh Phangan this month, in the area where we are, the culture is far more shaped by Westerners on a spiritual journey than anything authentically local. This is a nice view outside of that.
4. Two months in, but still no one knows about this website yet. I wonder if I’ll finally launch/ announce/ promote before November hits.
5. I just looked over at the Japanese man sitting next to me on the plane as he fills out his arrival documents for Myanmar, I know, I’m such a snoop… But, it was worthwhile! I noticed that we share an October 20th birthday! I tapped him on the shoulder and showed him my passport, we shook hands and wished one another happy birthday. How special and perfect. Birthdays hold so much significance in the Buddhist part of Southeast Asia. The different positions of the Buddha are associated with different days of the week of birth, and almost all donations to temples are collected in association with your Chinese zodiac animal. I’m about to land in the only place that’s possibly more Buddhist than Thailand. This is definitely a good omen for a beautiful trip.