hallelujah

ok. i know that gratitude for the exceptionally good moments of one’s life does not compare in merit with the ability to feel grateful when the shit hits the fan, but i’m going for it anyway. i am sitting in the settling dusk, coming alive with birdsong and soft warm wind. i am far inside a jungle plain, on many acres of land owned by Dinesh’s friend’s uncle, soon to eat a dinner of fresh vegetables we just bought at the market, after which i will ascend the steep stairs of one of two treehouse where i will sleep in the arms of a man i love. we just saved an abandoned calf who was stuck in the grip of thick clay mud in a slough on the way. in the distance, thunder like muffled sheet metal being shaken. right here, the wind and the birds picks up and there is NO OTHER SOUND AT ALL. if i am not yet in heaven i will never know the difference. i think about all that has delivered me to this place, this moment, and i am dumbfounded. i have stumbled into some kind of grace i probably (no, most assuredly) do not deserve, yet here i am. right now, this is my life. it’s extraordinary to me. every second of this feels worthy of a poem, a painting, a symphony, not these pale words hunt-&-pecked on a laptop. i am drinking this so deeply i feel i am subdividing the moments into ever smaller sips, with a sense of awe and deep peace, and yes, profound gratitude. halle-fucking-lujah.

The next morning, 7 peahens and 1 peacock, tail in full parabolic display and doing his best dance (the hens seem have headaches, one & all... poor guy), then off to full day safari in Yala National Park. Dim view of a leopard here, the river where we lunched with monkeys, an incredible elephant encounter, Omesh (friend from Tissa who came with) crashed out on the way home, and the last photo: NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED - minutes after we rescued the calf, the accelerator cable snapped (again!!!) - that rope and stick were the solution, and Dinesh drove the whole safari like that, one hand wrangling the arduous NOT-power steering, the other holding this new "gas pedal"... impressive.