Where in the World…

So.. Ireland blog.. seems I forgot to update you after April hit and the madness of finals, going home and heading for another country happened.

I stumbled back here and realized that somehow, in the past week, this blog has had over 50 views! Whoever is still reading my ramblings, I am so humbled by your interest!

And with that, I would like to direct you to my newest endeavour, Bali. I’ve been here for a month working as a interior design/product design/jewerly design/landscape architecture intern (say that ten times fast!) and had quite an adventure already. But it’s not over yet, and you can still follow the adventure that is still to come. You can find that here: http://merebuthari.wordpress.com

And if you didn’t read about India yet, check out last summer’s musings at http://seekingnamaste.wordpress.com

I really should just have one site for all these blogs. It would make it much easier.

Terima Kasihi! (thank you in indonesian)

Don’t Walk.

I like who I am I am here.

There’s less stress. Less weight. Fewer concerns. More moments of beauty. Bigger smiles and wiggling toes. The colors are brighter. I appreciate deeper. I feel more joy.

I am surrounded by lightness. Classes seem less challenging and less worthy of my worries. Day trips are easier to justify and shoes are less necessary. My friendships are simple- they are easy to call upon and they are deeply rooted in the spirit of adventure, something quite magical to bring people together. These people don’t weigh me down. They don’t discourage me. We like to go places. We like to do things. We search for happiness.

I think this comes from being abroad, this phenomenon of ‘lightness’… this ability to let go of pretenses and questions. We’re all here for the experience and we support one another in that. There is something special about this attitude.

I see now why I miss the girl I am when I’m in India. I am carefree. I am brave. I am committed only to myself and the experience I can create within. There is a free spirit that gets released when the explorer in onesself is unleashed.

This shouldn’t be something that happens only when I’m abroad. Yet, I know that for all the excitement I have for senior year, I will be busier than I’ve ever been between work and classes and my committments.

Maybe this is why I paint. There is a freedom in the creative process. There is a spirit that can be released when we stop asking questions and let ourselves go. It’s putting your feet in the freezing cold water for so long, you don’t feel the cold anymore, you’re numb to whatever pains there are in this world and it is in that moment that the ocean can speak to you, the clouds can dance for you, the world can become alive again.

I want to be light like that every day. Filled with a belly of smiles, carried on feet that don’t walk but dance.

Ireland likes to dance.

 

New Grange / Trim Castle

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This is a collection of photos from my weekend trip to Newgrange and Trim Castle. Both were really amazing experiences, but I think the best photos are actually from outside my window from the trip betwen the two! Ireland is so beautiful.

Stress and Time.

“Time, where did you go.. wait, don’t move so fast.. I’m missing the moments as they pass..”

-Chantel Kreviazuk

Time seems to have taken over my life. Somehow March is ending, I’m a year older, I’ve added another country on my list of places been and I’m down to only a little over a month here in Ireland. I’m beginning to think about arriving back in the US.

There is a lot of that bittersweet stuff going on. I feel like since coming back from India and planning my summer in Indonesia, I’m already a little less here and a little more there. I’m thinking about my three weeks at home and beginning to make the doctors appointment checklists and figure out how I’ll spend enough time with my little sister for her to not resent my going away again.

I’m trying to look forward to these next three travel weekends rather than worry about the fact that they are coming and going faster than I’d like.

Next weekend is when I’ll be off to the Aran Islands. I am so looking forward to finally going.. and the weather is much better so it will probably be better off to go now.

The weekend after that I’ll be in Budapest with my high school best friend. I’ve always wanted to explore that part of the world, so I’m really excited to explore it!

Then my family comes in (yay!) and I’m down to less than 3 weeks in Ireland.

Wow. Where did it go?

The two week break I spent in India has changed my mindset, as India always does, and I’m becoming more and more appreciative of the time I have here. Whenever I say bye to people I care about, I’m reminded of the fact that our time is transcient.. and my time here in Ireland seems to be slipping away.

I’m trying to spend more time with people I care about. I’m trying to go out. Drink more beer. (I never used to like beer) Read more books. Work out. Go to the classes I don’t have to go to. Go to bed early and get up early.

I’m looking at my schedule for next semester. It’s going to be overjammed with classes and work again. I won’t have lunch time again. My classes look to be starting before 9am some days.  I will pack myself with work and painting till 5pm+. I tend to do this to myself. So I’m making sure that each morning here I make time to make myself breakfast, two eggs and two rashers, and I eat it, slowly, over the morning Boston.com headlines.

I am trying to let Ireland teach me to slow down in the middle of all the rushing around. I am trying to let Ireland teach me to spend time with myself. I am trying to let Ireland teach me to appreciate the simplicity of the complex.

I’m 21 now. What? I’m going to go home for probably only three weeks and be back on a plane to somewhere else. How will I use this time? I’m going to end this semester and be a senior in college. How will I make it possible to experience all the things I want to with my crazy schedule? Will I ever find the time for a Red Sox game again?

Time, it seems to be ruling my life.

I am trying to put myself in the right place to be away again this summer and back again this fall- and in reality, this, is what is the most overwhelming of all. My life is full of this coming and going, entering and leaving.

 

Five Spoons.

Do we ever have the time to really think about all that is happening in our lives, or do we all live in this half-life of passively experiencing?

The smell of the coriander in the soup reminds me of the kitchen.I hear the sounds of a foreign language swirling around my head, and focus on the coriander. I sit, waiting for the spoon because I can’t eat with my hands.

“Five spoons on your hand, five spoons on your hand” she always says, but I still can’t eat with my hands, not yet.

the morning sun.

There’s a trick to this place that’s taken me two months to figure out, but now that I have, I have found new joy in each morning. Dublin is sneaky, you see, I’ll always complain about the rain and the wind and how cold it gets and terrible the weather can be.

But alas, I have found the answer.

Early morning, before the few unlucky students wake for their 9am classes, the sun dances in the sky, as if to reward to early birds who wake to meet it.

I have been waking early and sitting with the sun each morning.

It’s changing everything.

An exerpt

From my journal, March 17th

The ground here makes my skin grow thicker- layers of soft tissue peel off my toes- revealing a stronger skin below. Yet I talk softer here. Speak more intentionally. Tread lighter. Something about this place makes me soft and strong and a little bit braver.