My warnings from the universe to slow down

Wanted to finish up with details of my first week in Bali before I headed off to the yoga, photography & writing retreat called "Stillness & Senses" but there just didn't seem to be time. Partly due to a cosmic "misplacement" of my Charles Schwab debit card the day the retreat started. Within the first week of being here I went to get cash at an ATM - it was only the second time I used the card and I left it in the ATM as I hurriedly took the cash and the receipt, (thank god I took the receipt) and ran off to meet the driver that was waiting. It was the next day when I went to pay Made at the house I was renting I realized the card was gone. Yes I was panicked, yes, I was sick to my stomach. And yes, all I kept repeating to myself over and over was, I can't believe I did this, I can't believe I can't find this, I've hardly used it."

To make a long story short Made drove me on her motorbike to the local branch from which the ATM was a part of (thank god I had the receipt) and luckily it happened to be her bank that she has been banking with for years. She did the talking in Balinese and the one hope I seemed to have was that I had left the card in the ATM machine because the ATM eats the card after 15 seconds if you don't take it back as a security measure. There was no one behind me in line because it had been early in the morning and I had searched high and low in my belongings and that was the last time the card was used. The bank has a schedule of people who come from the headquarters in Denaspar to open the ATM's - apparently this is a common occurrence. Made has done this herself before. The following Wednesday they would open the ATM and then I could come to the bank and see if the card was there. So giving the universe a chance that life was good to me and I simply was getting the message that I needed to be careful and slow down, I decided to call Charles Schwab and put a hold on the card and wait until Wednesday to see what happened. Because the people at Schwab confirmed there was no activity on the card besides mine I felt better. Wednesday came, I headed down to the bank with someone from the Hotel we were staying at for the retreat and the Bank had my card.

What a story!! Alone, in Indonesia, my first week, I leave my card in an ATM machine and enough people help me that I actually get it back. Who would have thought that was possible? So I have been making my very best effort to slow down and take things in. Hence not much has been on the blog this week, but my rhythm is shifting and I'm feeling more at ease.

It was only 2 days before the ATM incident that my new friend Jenny the artist from Ireland and I decided to ride a motorbike to Sanur Beach for an afternoon in the sun. Well, Jenny didn't have an international license, we got pulled over by some policeman and then had to pay them $200,000 rupiah (about $23) to get out of the ticket. Yes, it was definitely time to slow down.

But before the Stillness and Senses Retreat, I'll have to tell you about cooking with Desa and the Market in Ubud....