Naxos nights

Sat, 11 Mar 2000 17:00:00 +0000

No single incident in my life has been so strange, so hard to grasp, so totally lacking in feasible explanation. It's the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me and it happened on a Greek island. I came to Naxos by mistake, but maybe there are no mistakes. Maybe sometimes we're meant to be led here and there, to certain places at certain times for reasons beyond our understanding, beyond our will or the spell of the moon or the arrangement of the stars in the sky. Maybe all the dark and eternal nameless things lurking around us have their own purpose and vision for us. Who knows?

When I was 23, I was traveling alone through Europe. Traveling alone seemed to come naturally to me, and that solitary trip was just the beginning of what would become a habit in the years to come. I'd been in the rain for two months in Britain and discovered I didn't like being wet. I wanted to dry out. And perhaps I wanted more than that -- an inner light, a deeper understanding of life's complexities, a friend. With all those rainy days traveling alone, a fire had been extinguished within me and I needed rekindling. One morning I woke up soggy. I was on a beach in Scotland at the time, so soggy was to be expected, but I was also shivering and miserable. I decided to escape to Greece as fast as possible.

Bali moon

Wed, 05 May 1999 16:00:00 +0000

The thing I love most about Bali is that everything is connected to the
spirits. Every morning, Balinese women place sweet-smelling offerings at
doorways to greet friendly spirits. Offerings are prepared with sprinkles of
rice, burning incense, flower petals, and jasmine. Even nasty demons are
treated with concoctions of blossoms and delicious things to eat. All
villages, including those no larger than a crossroads, are adorned with
elaborate shrines and temples. Above dangerous curves on the roads and at
busy
intersections sit sacred shrines to watch over passersby. In the countryside,
stone-carved deities hide in the bushes to ward off evil demons. One is
always
protected by the spirits in Bali.

Almost every day of the year is celebrated with a ceremony or ritual. Once I
was awakened in the middle of the night by a dreadful squealing noise. The
next morning I discovered the neighbors had sacrificed a pig outside my window
in some sort of pork chop offering to the gods ceremony. Not a day went by
when I didn't see a procession of colorfully dressed women balancing pyramids
of tropical fruit, cakes, and flowers on their heads as offerings to the
fertility goddess, or whoever the deity of the day happened to be.

Salon.com > Laurie Gough

Naxos nights

Bali moon