Living in the moment, Balinese style!

The Balinese people are teaching me how to live life in the moment, how to find joy in each experience, however small. Yesterday Carol and I were invited to Komang's house for coffee in the late afternoon. His mother, father, brother and wife are there. An old woman is also present....Dadong (Grandmother in Balinese). Komang tells me she has no family and lives in a shack up in the hills. The community cares for her, giving her food and companionship. Komang's father gives her a fish when he catches extra. Komang gives her a bit of money when the God's are kind to him (like when I buy a couple of baskets). "We know she can't repay us, but the God's repay us." She sits away from the rest of us, like an outsider. Her humility and old age attract me to her. I realise she is the old woman I passed on the road the first day I walked to Jemeluk Bay.
Carol and I watch as Yomang starts a fire with dried up palm leaves. They burn quickly and soon the blackened kettle is boiling for our sweet, strong, smooth cup of Bali coffee. It tastes delicious! Dadong drinks her cup, including the grounds in the bottom of the cup. Maybe it's the first thing she's had all day. I don't know. I notice a single burner gas stove and ask Komang if they use it for cooking. "It's broken. I need to buy a new one, but...." and he laughs. Say no more. First things first. The baby is due in May and He or She will have many needs. Then there's the engine for the water pump he told me about the other day when I asked if they had running water. Yomang, his mother, walks down the hill to the community well twice a day to collect  water and carries it back on the top of her head. It gives new meaning to that cup of coffee she tenderly hands me.
When I arrive she greets me with an outstretched hand and then a hug. She laughs and giggles and touches my shoulder as we communicate with our eyes.This family have so little material wealth but they have an unseen substance that has no price.How can we even try to compare our life with theirs? So we have all the gagets and material things in the physical plane, but as a great prophet once said, " What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?" These people are in close touch with their souls. They live their lives with a constant flow of God presence. It is humbling, to say the least. And it teaches me something so simple and profound: when we live in the now, there are no problems, no broken propane stoves, no lack of water pumps or clothing for a new child. For right now, we are laughing, connecting, filling up with joy unspeakable. And as Carol and I walk back to our bungalow, we are lost for words: "Wow!" is all we can utter of the afternoon at Komang's. The radiance on our faces tells it all.