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One of the things I appreciate most about the UAE is the opportunity it affords me to travel the world, remind myself that it’s all my home. Five countries in eight months, three of which I need to visit again, most definitely. Making up for a lot of lost time.
This time, I had a week in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka! Even back in the mid-80’s when I thought Duran Duran was the most innovative music to be heard by human ears and their lyrics so profound that a ten-year-old couldn’t possibly be expected to understand them all, I dreamt of Sri Lanka. (Yes, they are responsible for putting the country on my radar!) A more immediate goal, however, was just to see some green things growing without all sorts of supplements and fancy manipulations to put water where it doesn’t naturally go. I live in a garden city, where the round-abouts are routinely replanted with flowers, and it is very pretty, in a resort-town sort of way, but it’s nice to remember that plants sometimes grow just because they can.
This first trip (of hopefully, many) was a whirlwind of tea plantations, jungle, and beach. A mosaic of mosques, temples, kovils, and churches. A cornucopia of tropical plants, fruits and nuts, animals, crafts, and the most natural and easy smiles I’ve ever encountered. A sweet, sweet place.
As I write, I’m drinking the freshest green tea I’ve ever had, and feeling refreshed in a way that I wasn’t expecting.
My first morning, I visited a Buddhist temple, sat with the monk and a few devout as they chanted, and received a white string. The monk seemed to be quite pleased that I joined them, instead of joining other tourists in taking pictures of them during the ceremony. He graciously blessed me with a smile.
I walked around the temple afterwards and saw statues of Ganesha, Sarasvati and others, a curious thing, because those are Hindu. But, as I would notice throughout Sri Lanka, there is not only a tolerance for other faiths (as in the UAE), but that many of them truly live side-by-side and intertwined. I thought it was a new-world thing to pull from different religions and philosophies to formulate your own brand of spirituality. It isn’t new. It has a country. People from different faiths work together, befriend each other, marry (except for Muslims), and sometimes take a little from each one. My friend, driver, and guide Prashan was born into a Buddhist family, went to Catholic school, and has a respect for both. More and more, I felt a kinship with this place and its people. And more and more, I started to live again in a peaceful, flowing way, in that softness that mountains and oceans always steep me in. And something that’s really hard to do in the harshness of the desert, I started to meditate again.
Prash is a wealth of knowledge about his country, it’s history and where to get good deals on herbs and spices, batik, water buffalo leather, and jewels. Much of our time was spend weaving in our VIP vehicle through two-lane roads (there are no highways) to get to factories where we could learn how things are done. I have penpals from these places now, and many of them are sure that I will move there some day. I can’t imagine a richer life. Not much money, but wealthy in resources. Wealthier still in spirit. I saw my first mongoose, “crocodile lizards,” wild monkeys, wild peacocks, and wild water buffaloes. I rode an elephant. I met many spice trees I had never met. I bought a beautiful batik wallhanging for the home my future holds: the one with beautiful items from across the globe with true memories attached. All of those things are wonderful, but it really was the conversations, the inner reflection, that I treasure most.
Years ago, I had a dream that has haunted me. It is of a tsunami. Yes, there is death involved in this dream, yes, and heartache, but what has stayed with me is the calm inevitability. In my dream, a poem with a rhythm like waves played over and over again. (“...merged with a raging sea...time and back again..”) It talked of lives past and lives to come. This dream came back to me again in Sri Lanka, and yet no longer am I haunted by the dream. Instead, I feel closure. Interpret as you will.
At times, people asked me if I was Berger (Sri Lankan of Portuguese/Dutch descent.) Other times, people spoke to me in Singhali. Prash calls me sister, says I have the temperment of the Sri Lankan people. I feel I have yet another home. Whether it’s from before this life or for a future life (if those exist), I feel part of myself is still there. Is this what I wanted from travelling? It is so, so much more.
And though where I live is vastly different, (a lush environment promotes a lush life, as a harsh enivornment promotes a harsh one), I am profoundly grateful for my time in the UAE. It gives me the chance to satiate my wanderlust in the now while allowing me to put something in for the future, whatever that actually holds. Pretty wonderful stuff.
