Rahayu

I'm back home after a trip to the USA and China. It was rich with thought-provoking discussions and meetings with delightful people but punctuated by gruelling travel with frustrating delays. I am so glad to be home. It is wild, wet, windy and wonderful here, the air soft and fresh, trees dancing, water everywhere entrancing. I am rahayu.

Rahayu is a word I encountered in Bali some years ago, and it's a concept that we need in English, but have no word for. It means living in the moment, grateful for the world as it is now. It is also a woman's name. I'm determined to introduce it to as many people as possible.

Rahayu

a raven swings and rolls

crooning craw-croo

soaring between layers

of light and flow

all we need to know

the old man says

is how to be rahayu

grateful for this moment

for silver clouds in the relentless sky

and this black wheeling curve of bird

(from my first poetry collection, letting light in, available as an ebook here)