Day 2 of 2008

Happy New Year everyone. We are doing well, had a fantastic holiday in Hikkaduwa. I'm back at work today. Tomorrow is Vipula and Yuki's wedding so Leo stayed down for that. I've asked Big Daddy to drive me back down right after work on Friday night for the weekend. It felt better to leave yesterday when I could say, "I'm coming back in 3 days!" Unfortunately my camera is out of batteries and the charger is in Hikka so it'll be next week before I can get any pictures from our Christmas/New Year time up. We didn't take many but there are a few good ones...

Christmas at Lynn's with the friends and puppies was GREAT. The puppies were beautiful. I kept being called to the table, to presents, to swim by Lynn and Leo and others because I was so blissed out with all those puppies. It was allllll I could do to not take one. The clincher was Leo bringing up QUARANTINE upon return to the States. That and the long flight. And yes, there are about a million other reasons why we shouldn't get a pup right now but that didn't seem to stop me the first time. Anyway, the turkey dinner and tree and mound of presents and smiling faces with my husband at my side and Lynn and Patrick and friends all around, I was blissed out. Mindful of home and missing our own family but so thankful for the tribe we were with that day. On the 26th, the anniversary of the Tsunami, all the surfers paddled out at 9am and formed a big ring out beyond the main surf break. They have done this the past few years in commemoration of the time the wave came, the lives lost, to be in silence and in remembrance together. It was a pretty big (wave) day so I stayed on shore. I climbed up to the lookout (3rd floor above the shop) and took pictures. I'll post one next week for you to see.

New Years Eve early morning, a major thing happened on the beach. I felt sad when I saw it, lump in my throat. The tree....the signature coconut tree that has stretched itself out over the beach bending towards the waves for ages and is in hundreds of thousands of photographs, fell around 5am on December 31st. The long trunk laid in the sand, the green top finally reaching the sea, waves coming to greet and kiss and flood it with its welcome. I have a few pictures of that too that I'll post next week. I know those of you who know that tree will feel the same as we did. The skyline is different. The beach is different.

New Years evening we were out on our boards, Leo at the main point and me at the beach break catching waves or watching for them to a perfect Hikkaduwa sunset. Majestic sky, floating in the water reflecting like gold, in quiet reverence in the company of others....everyone in awe....Happy new year~ That night the beach in front of Why Not was packed with Sinhalese families who came to take part in the festivities. Sri Lanka has a long tradition of firecrackers at New Years (and any other big celebration) so there were hundreds of bottle rockets and other variations on the theme being fired mostly up and over the breaking waves, with a few strays to keep everyone on their toes. Throw in lots of laughing and hugging and good wishes for the new year with a couple drunken quarrels later on brought on by the local hooch, ARRACK...unfortunate moments brought on by arrack are affectionately referred to as ARRACK-ATTACKS. The warm night was a lively Lanka scene to behold and we were thankful to be a part of it and in the company of dear friends.

Yesterday, New Years day I came back to Colombo. I saw in the news that a politician was shot dead while praying at his temple. And today a bomb was thrown at an army bus in town killing 5 and wounding about 28. Not a peaceful beginning to the new year. I hold the beauty and goodness that we experience in Sri Lanka in my heart while being mindful of the ugly difficult tragic raw painful tortuous fear-full reality that rips at many people's lives here and I pray for peace, and I try moment by moment to be peace in my speech in my thoughts in my spirit. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Gotta keep trying, gotta keep moving towards a good place even if we're not there now. Big deep breath, big love.

Blessings to all of you for the New Year.

Love,
Sara & Leo