Mandala
A beautiful constellation of randomness and intention
It's been 7 months since we moved from Singapore and to Ubud, Bali.
We have mostly settled down and into a nice routine.
Luciano goes to school every day in the morning and I have a good 3 hours to do my own things.
Not to mention my husband is loving his job.
I usually start the day off by going to a cafe for a cappuccino and read.
Afterwards, its usually baking or cooking at home.
I told myself that even though I have yet to restart my cake business, I should at least bake everyday to keep my skills alive.
As the dusts settled and with us being more comfortable in the new environment, I started to wish I have a close friend here who I can hang out with regularly.
Who knew that even for an introvert like me, who thrives on solitude, can get lonely at times.
Perhaps human beings are indeed wired to connect.
Luckily, I am happy to say that things have started to shift on our 7th month here :)
Yesterday, on one of our regular video calls, I told my husband who is travelling for business, "Honey! I think I have finally found a really good friend :)"
I am sure my joy beamed through the invisible copper cables and fibre optic.
My new partner-in-crime is a Balinese mommy whose son is Luciano's classmate at kindergarten.
She lived and worked in Singapore before and is about my age.
She is a contemporary woman, a talented interior designer, a part-time lecturer who is also deeply buried in the Balinese culture and traditions.
I ran into her many times in school but it was never more than "hello!" and "see you!".
I don't know how and why but one day we just started to talk.
Actually it might be a combination of chance and my dire need of a playmate for Luciano, whose eternal reservoir of energy is making my daily life a scene out of the "Walking Dead".
We exchanged number and we just started messaging, going through our lives' inventories and sharing mundane motherhood stuff.
We would chat on and off for hours, laughing, empathising, learning and supporting.
Sometimes the beginning of a friendship is like a tennis rally.
You have to both serve and return the serve with equal intensity and focus.
You tell your stories with passion and you also listen with intent.
Meeting my new friend made me marvel at the randomness of life and how someone can suddenly pop up in your life and you go from being a cave woman to a normal social being.
It made me think about how we are constantly forging and fine tuning our network of care and support.
This network is like a beautiful mandala, made of different people that appear by chance but stay by will.
These people can be from different places, in different stages of life, have different personalities but collectively they make up this beautiful "world" that you know of.
I reflected on how in the process of finding our stance in this world, we sometime make mistakes that costed us valuable connections while also forgoing unfulfilled promises of young, sprouted friendships.
Sometimes, our ego, our past and our confusions simply got in the way.
I now look at my life's mandala, comprised of my young family, old unswerving friendships and new vigorous connections, with gratitude and a strong sense of duty.
I reminded myself how lucky I am that I have met all these wonderful people, and that I should take good care of this little universe of mine.
Love,
G x