Nyepi Day in Bali: Still. Slow. Soft. Gentle. Easy.
As an American living in Bali, I sometimes wonder how incongruous my personality is with the Balinese way of doing things. Our son’s babysitter comes over sometimes at night to babysit when we go out. And you know what she does while she waits for us? She sits outside and looks out into the night. She’s perfectly happy sitting and being in her own thoughts. I have to fight the urge to hand her magazines and a TV remote control. Me, on the other hand, I’m a multi-tasker. I read books about how to do more with less time (and re-read them, frequently). I judge each day by how much I got out of it, whether it be work, fun, pleasure, happiness or accomplishment. That is just my nature.
Our family’s goal is to live all over the world and to really experience it, so we try, as best as possible, to maintain a “when in Rome” type attitude. In London, we ate steak and kidney pies and drank ales and spent lovely long afternoons at pubs talking about rugby and the weather; in Ipanema, Brazil, we cheered along to the football games and listened to bossa nova. But, when Nyepi Day – a day of silence which marks the start of the Balinese Year – came around in Bali we sort of hummed and ho’ed about what to do.
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