Tree Prose

hey famiglia,

clearly i’ve been devouring the yoga practice and time with new friends, which is my lame excuse for not posting for nearly a month. in the meantime, mom came and visited! valentine’s was spent with mom and included 2 days of pure luxury on koh samui at the 4 seasons. i was greeted at the “arrival deck”, which overlooked the jungle valley, the sandy beach and beautiful waters with a cool towelette and a fresh squeezed mixed fruit juice…what a way to transition from backpacker to ‘royalty’. i was led to our very posh room with a huge, white bed that had a view out of two french doors to an invisible-edge pool, our very own, and the jungle sunset. the hotel staff was going on and on about how romantic the spot was when i finally had to tell her that it was indeed my ma coming to stay with me in this room…we had a giggle.

while valentine’s wasn’t particularly romantic, it was full of love. we really just kicked back and enjoyed the meals, conversation and ease of the place. she treated me to a pedicure and a full-body, two therapist, crystal, chakra balancing massage. mom’s ‘boss’, Butch, the man i consider to be my third dad, was also along for the luxurious event, as they had both just traveled around the world for work and within an hour went from singapore to koh samui. the three of us together made quite the valentine’s date!

after two days of luxury, we said goodbye to Butch and took the ferry to koh phangan. i was worried, unnecessarily so, that mom was not going to be comfortable on the island. afterall, thailand is a developing country and mom has a thing for luxury when she is vacationing…but boy was i wrong! pi pat arranged a sweet bungalow with air-con, near the beach, near a restaurant, my home…totally convenient. we woke each morning, did a stretch or two, had a few cups of coffee at the restaurant on the ocean, ate breakfast, i went off to yoga, she spent time walking, reading, exploring here and there…we’d meet for lunch, dinner somewhere ‘fancy’, back to her place to cuddle and watch a movie…it was truly blissful. she gladly joined a few yoga classes, listened to me rant about all that i am learning. She even attended the chocolate bliss, aphrodisiac workshop that Ash put on, where we sat in a circle and prepared raw chocolate ‘bliss balls’ together, performed a ‘tasting’ meditation, which was thrilling and then finally got to eat the yumminess together…totally O.D’ed on chocolate!

when we said goodbye there was a throat clenching moment of, “don’t go”, tears, the whole bit. i went to catch the ferry and realized i had at least ten minutes more to be by her side so i went back to her taxi…she was still there and this time the energy shifted to, ‘wow that was amazing you are awesome, i love you, see you soon’…pure strength and encouragement to keep going. filled with love and gratitude i hopped back on the ferry and felt at home-

with bliss from here to there!
love you,
tp