*e*: bali with my babe

ohhhh bali. where do i start?

i just returned from a juicy week with my beautiful middle babe ~ what a gift to spend this time with her...she was wide eyed, in awe and gratitude over every beautiful flower, big green leaf, stray dog, offering and smiley balinese person. it was so joyful to witness!we stayed with nicole and her family just outside of ubud, in a blue house attached to a family compound, a beautiful family nicole has been friends with and visiting for the past 25 years! i am really enjoying getting to know all of her friends better and feeling as if they are becoming my friends too :) everyone loved yindi, and yindi loved everyone! isn't it amazing how with children there is no language or cultural barrier ~ just love.

nicole and yindi have a special bond from our many creative days together in perth...i was unwell with a chest infection for a good chunk of the trip so they spent a lot of time together painting, doing tai chi, yoga and cuddles!

i lovvvve being in bali ~ i've always had wanderlust and love to travel, and worked to find creative ways to do so! last october, after we ran our second soulful escape to bali i came home with a dream to bring each of my kids with me individually ~ to share the magic of bali with them and have delicious one on one time. my parents believed that travel was the best education and took us on some amazing adventures during our childhood ~ budget style ~ my mum is very creative and thrifty and i'm grateful to her for coming up with ways for us to see different parts of the world and have always tried to do this with my own children. my most treasured childhood memories are of road trips, camping and travel. seeing new places together.

so a plan was hatched and it was this cutie in the middle who got the first mumma trip...and what a yummy little love she was to travel with ~ the purpose of this trip was to set up a women's co-op in the village where we run our retreats ~ i'll share more on that later ~ yindi went with the flow, hanging out and finding fun wherever we went (although out 'business' was usually conducted in our friends houses so it wasn't too hard to find fun...puppies! kids! pigs! coconuts!)...we were able to brainstorm heaps of ideas, source materials and supplies locally, and make some solid plans.

and eat lots of mango.
blue house, i miss you!

yindi, with her golden shiny heart ~ collected donations of art supplies and used clothing/shoes from friends at school to take to a local kindy in the village ~ the bali children's project...i thought we would deliver the basket and go, but we got invited to spend the morning in the school ~ so cute seeing the little kids play and draw together with yindi...
look at all those smiles and flip-flopped feet!

now we are back in a winter wonderland and these pictures feel like a world away! yindi and i are wearing our tassel necklaces, sprinkling dried coconut on everything we eat and winking at each other reminiscing the amazing time we shared in bali.

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looking forward to being back there with these beautiful faces in march, when we run soulful escape again! the family above invite our group into their home to teach us how to make offerings, play us music and feed us treats. in exchange we give them a good laugh by trying to learn balinese dance.

we still have a few spots left for march. contact us via our website if you're interested in joining!

Comments

Someday!!!!! Bucket list!xxoo

Posted by: debi | February 06, 2015 at 10:19 AM

Ooooh, all looks so wonderful for you and Yindi :) xxx

Posted by: Sally | February 06, 2015 at 12:17 PM

so much goodness em. i can hardly stand it. yindi is luckier than she will ever know. i'm so glad you are doing all of these things. i love the smile on nicole's face in one of the photos, and i can sense the friendship the two of you have (well, plus i've seen it in person). duh. ;-) bali still affects me, over a year later. for that, i am grateful. it was so many things to me, being there.... i would like to go again. to be more fully present. to be lighter (as in less baggage and sadness). this is the journey i am on. love to you.

Posted by: Kimberly Reed | February 12, 2015 at 05:19 PM