19/10/2026
I wake before the others & sit on the cliffside mesmerised by turquoise seas crashing into black rock, meeting for a brief moment. A cacophony of thundering waves & birdsong & the low hum of the island slowly stirring. I close my eyes & the borders of myself dissolve. I am fluid as the seas yet eternal as this volcanic rock that like my body is somehow made up nearly entirely of space.
An ecotone is defined as a transitional area where two seperate ecosystems blend together.
I think how separate we have become, especially in the west. How the transition area between us & the earth, or us & God/spirit is so stark. A line drawn in the sand, me & other. Us & them.
Here that boundary feels more blurred. Relationship with spirit is as much a part of life as a morning coffee. Gratitude offered equally through fuchsia flower petals as through corner store crackers or ci******es. All bundled together in a palm leaf tray, Canang Sari, placed not only at temples but in doorways, alleys, vehicles.
A relationship with the divine that acknowledges it is everywhere. It flows through every ecotone, every place where one ends & another begins. Sacredness not reserved for what we deem worthy of worship, sacredness inherent simply by existing in this world.
Tri Hita Karana is a Balinese Hindu philosophy that focuses on maintaining harmony through the three centres of happiness. Self/Humanity, Nature & God. It recognises that these things are not separate but intricately woven together, the wellbeing of one impacts the wellbeing of another. That the seperation defining much of the culture in which I was raised, the one I see most often modelled around me, is an illusion.
Sarah Durham Wilson wrote “the way you alchemize a soulless world into a sacred world is by treating everyone as if they are sacred until the sacred in them remembers.”
Think of this next time you are sitting in traffic or in an argument with the one you love. Think of it tonight as you lay down in bed & close your eyes. Think of it while you take your next breath. Can I allow the borders of this moment to blur, allow the ecotone between bodies & boundaries to stretch? Can I become one with spirit?