on easter sunday i woke up and decided to travel to iran.
this easter monday morning i am looking out of the window onto sunsoaked white houses and swaying green trees. i am in erica and brent's appartment. erica travels all over italy as a tour guide on a bus. brent is a graphic artist from canada who is looking for work at the moment in rome. they met during erica's school exchange programme in canada. i met them last night on the train and my enquiry about where i could find internet access led to a beer in a bar and then being invited to stay at their place.
online i have found out that an iranian visa for a UK citizen may cost 275 euros.
i was sitting on the train platform playing my ukulele when a woman gave me a bag of chocolate eggs and a smile.
i used to curse God because i had no shoes
then i met someone with no feet.
(muslim proverb)
brent is playing the guitar and erica is making some pasta. a sunny easter monday morning in rome. easter sunday was also a very sunny day. i left the rainbow gathering in the morning and began walking along the via francigena, the old pilgrim path to rome. across the sunny garden fence, a group of friends having a barbecue invite me for a glass of wine, which leads to a plate of pasta and salad and the most succulent soft lamb i can ever remembering tasting. massimo the barbequer and i talk about being open to the new opportunities that life offers us each new day, about the importance of sharing with the people we meet along the way and the essential unity of all beings. we end up embracing each other often and, looking into each other's eyes, commenting that it is not so frequent for two people to choose to look directly and honestly into the eyes of the other. massimo's fidanzata - whose cuban parents gave her the name lady - says she will give me her eyes in return for mine. massimo says that she is a wild african spirit enclosed in the appearance of a lady.
next to the welcome home arch leading up the the rainbow encampment is a sign bearing these words:
Fermati, respira profondamente
sintonizzati e ascolta la Madre e il Cielo,
entra in profondo contatto con te stesso.
Risuona con la tua frequenza, il tuo colore libero delle impurita che ti hanno appesantito.
Armonizzati in un unico ARCOBALENO
che rifletta la strada piu alta.
it sounds like a religion, especially the last bit.
what makes a religion a religion? i said to the guy from holland with the cowboy hat and the long hair and the smile and the guitar. do you believe in the rainbow? he asked me the first time i met him by the evening fire. what is belief? it is our way of seeing the world, our way of behaving in accordance with our deepest values. all religions have a sacred book, says he, ours would be The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Now is our religion. we believe in Right Now.
the Power of Now suddenly acquires an extra resonance as i listen to his words. he is an animated figure at my side flickering in the soft blazing glow of the fire. the beats of the bongo drums powerfully measure out the flickering passage of moments, overlaid with a female's singing tribal voice
i left finlay juggling by the fire circle in the morning. he said he was thinking of travelling back to la valle degli elfi - the community in the wooded valleys in the north of tuscany. finlay and francesca travelled up from calabria, and we met at the festa della luna piena, which was combined with their celebration of thirty years of occupation of the old farm houses which were falling into ruin, scattered throughout the woods of the steep valleysides. being there is like stepping back in time, many houses have no electricity, the various young families educate their children in their own school and they live by growing their own vegetables and herding goats, as well as by touring the music festivals in the summer, making and selling pizzas. often they gather together for a festa lavoro - playing music and sharing sumptious meals of lasagna and pasta and homemade bread, in between working together on some project - planting potatoes or recementing an old leaky wall. the morning when it rained roberto, the grey bearded animated young soul, encouraged everyone with his exclamations, "oi, raggazzi. voi siete fantastici." he encouraged everyone with his exultations of the wonderful act of all working together in the freedom of the open air, and handed us cans of beer. when finlay and i told roberto that we would leave to go to the rainbow gathering, he responded: "ma il rainbow e qui. noi siamo il rainbow"
he said they all came from the rainbow. "the rainbow is good," he said, "but they don't do any work. what we have here is la passione per il lavoro."
it was a gleaming vision of the sort of life i would like to live if i ever decide to settle down.
this easter monday morning i am looking out of the window onto sunsoaked white houses and swaying green trees. i am in erica and brent's appartment. erica travels all over italy as a tour guide on a bus. brent is a graphic artist from canada who is looking for work at the moment in rome. they met during erica's school exchange programme in canada. i met them last night on the train and my enquiry about where i could find internet access led to a beer in a bar and then being invited to stay at their place.
online i have found out that an iranian visa for a UK citizen may cost 275 euros.
i was sitting on the train platform playing my ukulele when a woman gave me a bag of chocolate eggs and a smile.
i used to curse God because i had no shoes
then i met someone with no feet.
(muslim proverb)
brent is playing the guitar and erica is making some pasta. a sunny easter monday morning in rome. easter sunday was also a very sunny day. i left the rainbow gathering in the morning and began walking along the via francigena, the old pilgrim path to rome. across the sunny garden fence, a group of friends having a barbecue invite me for a glass of wine, which leads to a plate of pasta and salad and the most succulent soft lamb i can ever remembering tasting. massimo the barbequer and i talk about being open to the new opportunities that life offers us each new day, about the importance of sharing with the people we meet along the way and the essential unity of all beings. we end up embracing each other often and, looking into each other's eyes, commenting that it is not so frequent for two people to choose to look directly and honestly into the eyes of the other. massimo's fidanzata - whose cuban parents gave her the name lady - says she will give me her eyes in return for mine. massimo says that she is a wild african spirit enclosed in the appearance of a lady.
next to the welcome home arch leading up the the rainbow encampment is a sign bearing these words:
Fermati, respira profondamente
sintonizzati e ascolta la Madre e il Cielo,
entra in profondo contatto con te stesso.
Risuona con la tua frequenza, il tuo colore libero delle impurita che ti hanno appesantito.
Armonizzati in un unico ARCOBALENO
che rifletta la strada piu alta.
it sounds like a religion, especially the last bit.
what makes a religion a religion? i said to the guy from holland with the cowboy hat and the long hair and the smile and the guitar. do you believe in the rainbow? he asked me the first time i met him by the evening fire. what is belief? it is our way of seeing the world, our way of behaving in accordance with our deepest values. all religions have a sacred book, says he, ours would be The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Now is our religion. we believe in Right Now.
the Power of Now suddenly acquires an extra resonance as i listen to his words. he is an animated figure at my side flickering in the soft blazing glow of the fire. the beats of the bongo drums powerfully measure out the flickering passage of moments, overlaid with a female's singing tribal voice
i left finlay juggling by the fire circle in the morning. he said he was thinking of travelling back to la valle degli elfi - the community in the wooded valleys in the north of tuscany. finlay and francesca travelled up from calabria, and we met at the festa della luna piena, which was combined with their celebration of thirty years of occupation of the old farm houses which were falling into ruin, scattered throughout the woods of the steep valleysides. being there is like stepping back in time, many houses have no electricity, the various young families educate their children in their own school and they live by growing their own vegetables and herding goats, as well as by touring the music festivals in the summer, making and selling pizzas. often they gather together for a festa lavoro - playing music and sharing sumptious meals of lasagna and pasta and homemade bread, in between working together on some project - planting potatoes or recementing an old leaky wall. the morning when it rained roberto, the grey bearded animated young soul, encouraged everyone with his exclamations, "oi, raggazzi. voi siete fantastici." he encouraged everyone with his exultations of the wonderful act of all working together in the freedom of the open air, and handed us cans of beer. when finlay and i told roberto that we would leave to go to the rainbow gathering, he responded: "ma il rainbow e qui. noi siamo il rainbow"
he said they all came from the rainbow. "the rainbow is good," he said, "but they don't do any work. what we have here is la passione per il lavoro."
it was a gleaming vision of the sort of life i would like to live if i ever decide to settle down.
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