Today was a very good day. I woke up early and ate a wonderful fruit breakfast provided by my hostel - which is called Good Karma :) plus a delicious chai chia vegan protein shake. Then I went on a bicycling tour with some new friends from the hostel.
The most profound experience from the cycling tour was... planting rice with local farming elder women!
Each little grain takes so much care and tending to get to the point of being ready to eat!
Rice is so delicious, and I have been eating a lot of it recently (of course, Asia is known for it. But before coming to the Philippines, and now Indonesia, I hadn’t realized how amazing the process of growing and processing these little nuggets of goodness is!
I have been thinking about this recently, like when I went to the Banaue rice terraces in the Philippines just last week. We hiked up and down very steep and uneven stairs, through villages where the locals tend their family’s rice terraces.
That was an intense hike - 29 km, which is about 18 miles, over 2 days. Like I said, up and down a lot of stairs.
At the start of that hike I had felt really sick - from the pollution in Manila I think, combined with the 10 hour overnight busride through the mountains to get there... but by the end of the hike I was feeling so energetic and inspired. That fresh air and exercise was just what I had needed!
Today’s bicycle ride was like that, only a much better start! I felt good and had such a good time.
I was really pleasantly surprised to have so many opportunities to interact with locals in their element.
We also went to a family-owned facility where they make tofu and tempeh! This was really cool to see. It gives me such a deeper appreciation for these processes which are otherwise so easy to take for granted.
I’m so appreciative of these hard workers who are doing so much to put food on the table - not just for their own families, but actually for a lot of people! Amazing.
It makes me think about the value of this work, i.e. food production. These people are making literally pennies/hour... And what they do creates so much good food for us! I’m impressed, and confused about why this isn’t rewarded more.
Besides these thoughts and the deep contemplation that went along with this beautiful bike ride... I enjoyed getting my hands and feet dirty!
I am so glad I got to meet some of these kind people who were so happy to welcome us into their daily practice.
Tomorrow morning my practice will be yoga :)
Such a good life. I feel so grateful.
What are you grateful for?
Each individual grain of rice, perhaps?
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