Chapter 119
A decade of global ramblings! Have you been with me through it all? Through thick and thin; the divestiture of my life, belongings, relationship, the peeling away of layers of social, emotional, cultural grime… and subsequent dive through myriad new experiences, sights, sounds, trials, challenges and adventures.
When I first wrote this column ten years ago this September, it was with the thought that I’d be away about 18 months. Funnily enough, those 18 months turned into 8 years of bouncing around the globe in the company of Fantuzzi. I’d be bouncing still were it not for my physical body which determined I needed another change of pace.
So I’m contemplating inner journeys, the glory of our lives right here, the life-long supply of new and exciting meetings and happenings and doings that amass to create a life well-lived.
So what? Why did I start writing & what was it all about? For those who don’t know, my married name was Rutland. The title of the column is a gentle play on words – exiting the relationship & letting go of the habits of my previous life. I had no idea what to do next. I described my later decision to continue travelling, to follow Fantuzzi to see where it all went, living out of my backpack, as similar to jumping off a cliff & just falling. I was happy seeing where the wind took me.
It took me to so many extraordinary places in the world, extraordinary situations, extraordinary people:
- Camping in the Negev desert of Israel with Fantuzzi… on a slowly deflating air mattress that required our puff several times in the night. Climbing surrounding hills formed entirely from skeletal chalky remains of white seashells, remnants of an ancient ocean bed.
- Walking a green sand beach in the south of the Philippines… dogged by our bodyguard who finally told us “it is not safe to walk further here”…
- Sleeping bundled in all my clothes, borrowed sleeping bags and blankets, wool hat & more… in a powerless squat outside Jerusalem with a gaggle of gorgeous, generous, and immensely talented young Israelis.
- Riding elephants in northern Thailand with my parents…. making it through an elephant stampede without losing either of aforementioned parents.
- Visiting Bali with Fantuzzi – like diving into the most exotic luxurious fantasy – staying at his friends’ fabulous villas decorated with Balinese antiques and tribal art.
- Dropping into the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, northern India, along with 85 million friends.
- Swimming 2.5hrs along the coast in Goa, dancing across blistering hot sand.
- Giving Thai Massage to crazy party- goers at 2am after the music stops…
- Sailing the waters of Dar es-Salaam on the Swahili coast with the French ambassador to Tanzania.
- Watching the Malawians catch nets full of lake flies to make fly cakes for the market stall.
- Exploring fantastical Mayan ruins in Mexico at the end of the world.
- Hiking and swimming in the wild places of Hawaii, watching the wild ocean take its toll on the unwary.
- Train journeys across Germany, landscape unfolding green and luscious, schlosses (castles) on hilltops, solar panels in every village.
- Australia – obnoxious border guards, lovely residents. Hot, sweaty and wild.
- Teaching Thai Massage to more than 250 people in a giant tent in a giant festival in Australia. Background music by Fantuzzi and Emanuel Lieberfreund.
- Estonia – insanely fabulous fantastical country with language that sounds like elves singing, saunas and almost-sunsets, juxtapositions of Russian overlords and rural peasant rebellions.
- Finland – eternal summer sunshine, saunas and deep cold waters. Moomintrolls!
- Making a movie in Havanna, Cuba in the century’s hottest summer.
- Making music, recording in the studio, playing, singing, dancing.
- Spontaneous poetry and inner interpretations… unexpected and occasionally slightly disturbing.
- Sharing poetry with a bunch of writers in a basement bar in Bali.
- Leading yoga with a group of yoga teachers in Dar es-Salaam, hippies in the jungle, Germans at the Cologne Yoga Conference, with anybody who’ll listen, anywhere, anytime.
- Galloping horses across Philippine hills, Canadian Rockies, Spanish plains, wading bareback through the shores of Zanzibar, riding home amid the scent of drying cloves laid out in great sheets beside the road.
- Coming back day after day to a magical, inspirational, life-changing individual whose life’s course is unwavering and true.
Afternoons laying atop an Alberta hill alternating between gazing west and watching the dragonflies dance and swirl, thick in the air this summer. Sinking to get a close-up study of a clutch of harebells, then bergamot, then fireweed. The hills shimmer with colour and the gentle hum of the insect guardians doing their thing.
And so much more. The infinite experiences mount up daily.
There is so much more to come…
With gratitude and love,
Kat Dancer
bodymudra@gmail.com
www.kat-dancer.com
415.525.2630, ph/txt/wtsp
