Robin Sparks

I’d been at Day Number 2 of the Bali Spirit festival all day and was at home listening to the audio of yesterday’s press conference with Shiva Rae, Ninie Ahmad, Yudi Widyatoro, and Duncan Wong. (all about that tomorrow). As a teaser, there is an AMAZING array of yoga...

When I recently posted on Facebook that it is easier today than ever before to become a published author, a friend disagreed. She wrote, "It might be more possible to get something out there more easily nowadays. The problem is getting people to know about it, getting...

A vacationing American businessman standing on the pier of a quaint coastal fishing village in southern Mexico watched as a small boat with just one young Mexican fisherman pulled into the dock. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. Enjoying the warmth of the early afternoon sun, the American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

“…Suppose you woke up tomorrow,” Collins says, “and received two phone calls. The first phone call tells you that you have inherited $20 million, no strings attached. The second tells you that you have an incurable and terminal disease, and you have no more than 10 years to live. What would you do differently, and, in particular, what would you stop doing?

The snake (which btw looked just like a long leaf on a palm frond,) dropped the frog and raised his head to look at me, so I jumped back to wait until he had slithered away into the tall grass.

Just another day in Paradise.

One of the best things about living in Bali is the food. Food that is unprocessed, healthy, whole, organic, delicious, and cheap. Indeed, as I sit here typing, a few feet away on a palm tree hang at least a dozen coconuts, ripe for the picking ($1 if I ask Made to cut one down for me and hatchet it open in my kitchen), and to my left there are a bunch of Alice in Wonderland sized papayas dripping from a tree.

True it is not the regular Stuff of Americans I collect – i.e the car and house in the suburbs and all that goes with it, but the ethnic Stuff, mostly textiles and handmade items that reminds me of the heart and soul of the places in which I have lived and loved. I not only buy Stuff I want to have with me, but as gifts for others. What I can’t take stuff into my luggage, I ship. Or I convince family and friends to store the Stuff I leave behind. Is it possible to be a Bedouin and be addicted to Stuff?