Three Thousand Possible Outcomes In a Single Moment
We were so grateful for Magda’s delicious home cooking; the rain was coming down in torrents last night and we ate in our warm apartment listening to its music which seemed to be heading towards a crescendo that never came, we climbed into bed with its symphony still not complete…
It felt like it might rain for days; we didn’t mind as we are used to rain in Corfu, we arrived last September to an unusually stormy rainy patch of weather!
As Anadi had said ‘Well we know why its so green and lush here’.
However today we woke up to sunny skies with white whispy clouds skudding across the blue; the sea sparkling, even looking inviting!
We set off to climb the hill to Spartilas again, stopping at ‘Agnadio’ to take some photos of the stunning vista displayed below us.
The restaurant is owned by our friend Yiannis and we enjoyed delicious meals here last year.
Agnadio’s attracts many people in the season… Its fame has spread across the globe and visitors come from all corners. For now though, it is resting - its shutters closed. Of course the views are still a sheer delight to behold, Ipsos in miniature laid out below us, like an artist's model…
We ran on a bit further than yesterday, so that we might find the road that would lead us back to Barbati and so create a loop of a run instead of an ‘out and back’.
I put my Garmin on as we left, and the moment the satellites located me, we shot forward two hours in time…
Our frequent time travel and shifting location challenges our set patterns of thinking and behaving.
Later when I went on a shopping mission, I first went to the right side of the car to get into it, and then I fumbled to find my seat belt. As I reached the end of the driveway of Stefanos Place, and as I was about to pull out into the road, I mentally ‘pressed pause’ to make certain I drove on the correct side!
Changing country and location frequently demonstrates to me how many assumptions we make all the time.
I recognize that on one level it helps us make meaning to all that is around us and inform how we make decisions; but on the other hand it can mean we miss things and do not notice the mystical and unusual, and project old stories onto new situations and scenarios from a past map; rather than really and truly operating from a curious ‘not knowing’ position; where there are multiple possibilities and outcomes in any moment…
In Buddhism, there is the idea of three thousand possible outcomes in a single moment. Everything is within us, every possibility as living beings, which in turn creates infinite variations for life to express itself within the now.
We were running down the winding road to Barbati when a red four-wheel drive car passed by us, we moved over to the side of the road and the people in the car waved at us and we smiled and waved…
The winding road brought us out onto the coast road and we made our way down to the shoreline. We had swum in the clear magical balm of the Ionian sea from this beach every day in September.
As we reached the bottom of the hill we saw the red jeep was sitting there. The driver wound down his window, and asked us if we would like a lift back…
‘Thank you, but we’re on a run’ we smiled... ‘Where are you staying’ he asked ‘near where we passed you'?
‘No, we’re about a mile away from here', we said and pointed in the direction of our ‘home for a week’.
We introduced ourselves to one another, Gary and Sue had come down for a walk on the beach, but by the time we had finished chatting together it had started to rain and they had wisely changed their minds!
As we said goodbye, I told them I would be writing about them… ‘Writing about the bloke that left us in the rain and didn’t give us a lift’, Gary laughed…
They have lived here a year, leaving everything behind in the UK, similar souls, fellow travellers meeting on the winding road to Barbati…
As we ran along the deserted beach, Anadi said ‘There will be a rainbow, I am looking for a rainbow’. But no rainbow appeared..,
After I had showered I went in search of a shop to buy us breakfast. I drove up and down through Ipsos but could find not one open shop…
However, I did find Anadi’s rainbow.