The big holiday: from chi kung to rice and cooking

It is on the longest days of the year that we start thinking about the big summer holiday!

Big because it is usually longer than the short breaks we take through the year — but it can also be big in what we set out to do!

• What would we like to do differently on this holiday?

• What would we like to learn?

• What will this learning holiday give us that we can carry into our lives?

We went away not in summer but in winter, in January, to celebrate the Great Life — and a 50th birthday 😃

Bali is a country with a beautiful culture and simple, genuine people who always have a smile. Its nature is extraordinary, and seriously at risk from too much tourism and new development, but still as lush as a tropical climate makes it 🌴🌴🌴

What took us to Bali rather than another tropical country was the chance to take a chi kung course in January, and along the way to see the famous rice fields and then move on to a Balinese cooking workshop!

Chi kung is a very old Chinese art of movement, aimed at promoting life, that has been developed in China over thousands of years.

«Chi is energy, or life force. To live is to have chi in every part of the body. For us to be in good health there must be a balance of chi — neither too little nor too much.» Wong Kiew Kit, in The Art of Qigong

«Chi kung is a way of cultivating energy and of connecting with the Universe around us. It is practised through slow, gentle movements, very simple and within everyone's reach, together with conscious breathing and an attitude of relaxation and inwardness.» Pang He Ming

Jatiluwih rice terraces — a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Rice 🌾 is the grain most used in macrobiotics: the most balanced of all, and the most even between Yin and Yang. In these eastern countries rice is the foundation of the diet, unlike ours, where wheat took hold through both pasta and bread.

Seeing these rice fields is seeing a beautiful landscape, full of tradition and of human craft. From the newly planted rice we saw in Jatiluwih to the grown plants in the fields of Ubud, watching those plain little grains tumble from the plant is fascinating. For us, used to seeing rice only in a packet, it makes you wonder about the whole process — how rice is planted, how it grows, how it is harvested and how it is processed. There is a great deal more to discover 😊

And from there we went on to the cooking! A wonderful cuisine, full of craft and colour.

A balanced kitchen, built on rice, vegetables, tofu, tempeh, egg and chicken, seasoned just enough.

And you? What are you going to learn on your big holiday? 😉