Okay folks, here it is, the secret of how Little Tessa walks to the moon. Are you ready? You better brace yourself, there's some real life magic right here.
Stop 3: Bali
I have never been to Bali, but I wanted to for many years. The peace and calm that emanates from the island was very attractive to the tense and unrelaxed twenty-something Tessa. I felt I could learn a lot from these balanced and harmonious Indonesian people who spend much time offering flowers and other beautiful things as a sign of gratitude for life and living. And I'd read Eat, Pray, Love many times.
I used to consider myself a sort of hippy, an identity I no longer choose but at the time it felt like I was taking a superior stance. I was chasing some kind of ‘higher power’ or something sacred that was outside of myself, but in reality I felt incomplete as I was.
In The Girl Who Walked to the Moon, Little Tessa goes to Indonesia and discovers that SHE is holy, and whole. She is complete, like the full moon, just as she is, with all her faults and foibles and darker parts. Humans are sacred, exactly as we are.
I want my children to grow up knowing that there is nothing WRONG with them. That there is so much beauty in our imperfections. And that our dark sides are what make us complete. We can learn to love ALL of ourselves.
So I don’t need to go to Bali, Little Tessa did the job for me in the book. I don’t need to look outside of myself for what I need to be happy. I have my Little Tessa inside of me that reminds me I am whole and brilliant just as I am. So no more hankering for a hippy harmony holiday in Indonesia.
But I love surfing and I hear they’ve got some great waves.
