I have learnt to appreciate every day in paradise. There are constant changes. Just like in real life. Nothing is static, not even in paradise. Suddenly a snake appears, you are offered an apple – and everything is out of balance.
My personal paradise is a ten-hectare plot with lots of fruit trees. There are only a few villas on the ten hectares. It’s like living in a park. An entrance gate keeps out all traffic and disturbing influences. We have been living in this ‘park’ surrounded by nature, river, trees, meadows and a rice field for a couple of years now.
While I was in Europe dealing with bureaucracy, officials and notaries…and longing for my quiet, green paradise, a building site for six more villas was being dug up, right here in my ‚paradise‘. By the time I arrived back to Bali, the trees had been felled, the foundations had been poured and the walls had gone up. Construction work starts at 6am and often lasts until 9pm.
The owner of the ten hectares had decided to build more villas in this paradise.
Now I have to live with it. There are still ten hectares and there is still a river and fruit trees and tall, old jungle trees. There are still crickets chirping, geckos calling and birds screeching in the crowns of the banyan trees.
An essential part of my personal paradise is my Balinese friend, with whom I like to walk along the riverbank and sit at the edge of the rice field at dusk. She is from here and part of the worldly paradise.
But after I‘ve been away in Europe, despite frequent video calls, an uncertainty has arisen, an unreliability has spread.
The already inscrutable habits and cultural differences have intensified, become even more inscrutable and even less reliable.
I no longer know where we actually stand.
The two months were full of events in Europe. I organised things in three countries within six weeks, including meetings to design a mega project, but also tax, health insurance, car sales, telephone provider, municipality, banks and the sale of my mountain house in the Alps. These weeks were packed and successfully completed.
Back in Bali – time seems to have stood still. The same two months, but they just passed. Little new, little essential, few results in all the projects and official channels that lie on the desk here. Even though a whole team is working on them.
Documents not signed, permits not processed, PLN orders for new electric cables- not fulfilled, mutual rights for access not yet granted.
Very different – the course of two months.
In Bali, time ticks by, seems to pass quickly, but with little result.
In Europe, time passes so quickly because the days are so full of ‘what needs to be achieved’.
And Europeans are calibrated to ‘achieve‘.
Balinese are calibrated to allow.. -for delay, for mistakes, for inconsistencies. Allow for the fragile fabric to change, move in unintended, not anticipated territory.
According to the Asian principle: The only thing constant in life- is change.
Impermanence is all permeating.
The „ iron wood“chairs get eaten by termites from the inside. The pipes in the ground impermanently start leaking. The roof tiles get tiny cracks and let the water in.
Even RULES change unforeseen and unannounced. Companies established by foreigners suddenly need a backup capital of 150,000 USD
Visa regulations change, property laws change. Trade agreements with other countries change. Indonesia joined BRICS states.
Tax laws and execution change. Building zones change into protected Green Zones (after you bought land in a building zone).
Nothing stays for longer.
If you leave paradise for a while – do not expect the same Bali on return.
