Let Them Not Say

Let Them Not Say is a powerful poem by Jane Hirshfield herein set to music by a Scottish composer, Christ Hutchings, a climate activist and founder of Choirs For Climate. He did this video for Earth Day.

Do listen and, something I don't recall having urged before, please pass it on to wherever you feel so moved. - dc

Let them not say is a poem in Jane's Ledger, published last year. See more at her cuke page.

Windy Wind Wind

It sure has been windy here in Sanur and, from what I hear, all over Bali and out at sea. Nyoman driver says that it has whipped up the waves so much that the fishing boats and surfers aren't going out. Tennis pal Elliot who lives with his family very close to a beach east of here says they can't wait to go on a trip to the States they'd planned, just too windy to do anything outside. I guess we're somewhat protected, maybe by our distance from the beach but we're enjoying it. This is the coolest Usually we think of July and August being Windy but it's early this year and strong. Not like the 500 tornadoes in the States last month.

An Aesop tale with sun and wind impressed me as a little boy. The sun and wind argue over who's more powerful and vie to see who can get a traveler to take off his coat. The wind blows hard but the traveler just holds tight. The sun gently shines and the traveler takes off his coat. Gentleness wins the day. I think in our story though it might turn out that the sun and wind join forces without being so considerate of those below.

Oops.

That link to my Instagram photos page was intended for the Cuke nonZense blog so I'm deleting it from Cuke New blog but leaving this as a plug for the companion blog. - dc

Photos from the Last 1.5 years

On my Instagram page

Sustainable Suzy post moved

Accidentally put the Sustainable Suzy post here on Cuke What's New which is for Zen/Shunryu Suzuki/Cuke Archives posts, mainly Suzuki lecture excerpts. Now it's where it was supposed to go - on Cuke nonZense.

Saunters Posts

I stopped making Saunters posts here a while back - or anything not Cuke Archives related. Now Saunters posts are at Cuke Annex (for nonZense) under Saunters 4. Just started putting one there daily a few days ago. - DC

A one week Tapa Brata retreat

At Bali Usada's Forest Island with Merta Ada

Bali Report

Lot of folks asking about how we're faring in Bali. I haven't been putting personal stuff here for a while and I've been posting all that on my personal Facebook page at David Reich Chadwick but there are too many who choose to eschew the evil FB and I understand as I don't linger there. So here are my recent posts there.

11-27 - We live in Sanur, about 40 miles from the Mt. Agung volcano. There's not a big emphasis here in the local culture with thinking about the future so the main thing I hear is complaints that there aren't many tourists with account for 75% of the island's economy. We see posts on Facebook, see features on foreign media sites like NYT and BBC. We have friends among locals and foreigners who've been involved with helping refugees and we've stocked up on food and water in case of a shortage. Otherwise, back to daily life.

11-27 - A local who calls himself Putu Hiking who guided Katrinka's son to the top of Mt. Agung a couple of years ago sent her this video he took yesterday. He's not leaving and he's two kilometers further away than the six kilometer evacuation zone - less than five miles from the place where the smoke and magma come out. We've offered him and his family refuge here. Hope he doesn't need it.

11-27 -  I just talked to Nyoman about Agung. He's a driver and assistant whom I've used for over three years and see almost daily. I asked (in Indonesian) if people were talking about Agung. He at first had to think about what I was referring to then said, the mountain? Yeah, the volcano. Are people talking about it? Oh yeah it's smoking. I kept pushing him. And he said oh it's only the nearby six kilometers they're concenred about. It's not unusual. Wow. Not unusual? Hasn't been like this since 63. Meanwhile we've got a few extra rations and making extra drinking water with our filter.

Rabies shots

Our once feral cat nipped at my arm last night, not in anger, and drew a little blood. The vet hadn't vacinated her for rabies yet because of timing after she got fixed. That's scheduled for five days from now. That didn't matter to me. I was going to get the rabies shots even if she had been innoculated. They're 100% effective and rabies is 100% lethal for humans (one exception) and even though we knew it was very extremely unlikely she had rabies, there are a stories of people who died from very extremely unlikely scenarios.

Puerto Rico

I posted about the volcano here in Bali because I get emails asking about it and our situation and so forth and so I mention refugees from near the mountain and other details. But it's just news and I'm not really making an appeal for Balinese who aren't in their homes now. The infrastructure here is not so bad and Balanese tend to take care of each other and nothing is devastated now and there are a zillion foreigners who care about Bali, who come here now and then. I'd say that Puerto Rico is in dire need of help right now, not Bali. 

Kodo Arts in Nevada City

for their yearly sale. Check out their website and say hello to old buddies Jake and Yuko.

Mount Agung Refugees Appeal

As you may have noticed in the news, Agung, Bali's highest mountain, is a volcano which is on the edge of having an eruption and so far about 15,000 people have been evacuated. Katrinka made a contribution instead of a planned outing with friends in the Bali International Women's Association which is keeping an eye on the humanitarian angle. Here's how you too can help. It's run by the East Bali Poverty Project and looks quite legit. That's where the poorest people in Bali live - a lot of them are mainly off the grid. - dc

Bali volcano on highest alert

BBC reports

Mt. Agung is 63 kilometers or 38 miles from our new home. Couple hundred thousand are urged to get further away. - dc

Moving

We're moving out of our apartment of three years today to a home a few kilometers away still in Sanur and a short walk to the beach. Just paid two years rent on it at $375 a month. Pardon the tasteless mention of filthy luchre but it's a big part of why we're here. - dc

Indonesia raises alert level for Bali volcano

Mt. Agung is showing signs of waking up. Agung means highest and that's what it is here. It's a whole 58 kilometers from Sanur where we live. That's 36 miles. Down boy. Back to sleep.

Selected Poems and Musings of Venerable Moneyya

Moneyya Chronicles

Also a cool guy we run into here. Hard to miss him with his shaved head and maroon monk's robe. Read his bio at that link.

Good stuff. - dc with katrinka nodding

Off to a Retreat

Left this morning on a Peramatour Bus for Lovina up north ten kilometers from the Brahmavihara Arama, a Buddhist temple (see photo), for a Vipassana retreat that starts on Saturday and ends Friday the 18th at noon. Katrinka will pick me up with a driver then and we'll stay up there maybe for a day or two or three because it's a whole three hours away on the other side of the island and we only get that far away occasionally. Got some friends up there too. All the Suzuki lecture excerpts are already in the queue for every day through the 19th cept Sundays which is cuke day off. Katrinka will also bring my laptop so I'll catch up on email maybe that evening or the next day. Taking iPhone but don't use it for email and will have to hand it over for the duration of the retreat - sort of like checking your guns at the door or the Samurai leaving their swords outside the teahouse.

Java Buddhist Hindu Sites 3

Sewu buddhist temple within Prambanan archaeological park

Candi Plaosan below is within the park too. And there was a third smaller temple. All three of these were impressive but since they're near, 500 meters, the great Candi Prambanan Hindu temple we were the only ones who walked over to see them - with the help of a nice man who'd just sold us a book of color photos of Prambanan Archeological Park for more than it was worth but the guy's got to eat.

Buddhist Hindu Sites in Java - 2

While in Jave recently, we stayed in Jogjakarta for four nights. Spent a few hours at Candi Prambanan. Candi means "temple." Borobudur is Candi Borobudur. Most impressive. It's Hindu 9th century and really big. The bottom picture gives an idea of size with people in it though there's a temporary fence in that one that wasn't there when we were there.

Wikipedia page for Prambanan.

Java Buddhist Hindu Sites 1

Katrinka and I just spent a week in Java, first staying four nights in Jogjakarta (or Yogyakarta) and then three nights in the countryside of Borobudur. There we visited Borobudur temple built in the ninth century, the largest Buddhist site in the world. It's got nine levels and we circumambulated each level staring with the grounds, doing the top level three times.

Wikipedia page for Borobudur