We are having lovely weather in the UK today. It means I can spread a blanket on the lawn, stretch out and feel the earth beneath my body. I can take deep breaths of rose-scented air. I can feel the grass with my hands and be close to nature.
When we were in Langkawi, I felt really close to nature because the door of our room opened on to a garden and the garden opened on to the beach. I was able to wander about barefoot in my bikini as much as I wanted. This gave me a wonderful opportunity.
Several times, during our short stay on the island, I set a deliberate intention to connect with this world. I had fun swimming, and spent some time lying on a sun lounger, well shaded by a tall palm tree, enjoying the cold drinks, ice cold towels and lollies provided at intervals by the hotel. But my connection rituals were more deliberate, more devotional, in a way.
In the daytime, I walked purposefully on the beach, feeling the air move over my skin, unaccustomed to being so exposed. I focussed on the soles of my feet and committed the feeling of the sand underneath them to memory, deep in my heart. I breathed in the air and imagined it circulating inside my body, and the connection that I was forming with this place just by surviving on its air.
I repeated the ritual at evening time. The air on my skin was only very slightly cooler but the sea, as I paddled at the edge, was quite a few degrees lower than the daytime. Noticing every detail, however, meant that I marvelled at the warmth of the sand under the cooler waves. I joined a very small throng or holiday makers who seem to gather each evening to watch and photograph the sun setting over the sea. Again, I breathed, I said, without using actual words, ‘I am here. I am connected to this place. This is real.’
Now, as I connect naturally in so many ways with my habitual home, I still carry within my body the memories of those rituals on the beach. I can conjure up the physical feelings that I experienced, and I have a strong sense of the relationship between my body and the environment I was in. Somehow, having done this made it easier to leave. Because I wasn’t really leaving; the connection never needs to be broken now.
