The Observance Of Holy Days

'Ah & the monks' ritual ringing of the bells & beating of the drums at four in the morning... To be awake in that cold, still hour & hear this holy thing... To know that loneliness is impossible if I can set my heart to pound along with this slow breath of bells... & then the dogs & cats & roosters call out too, dissipating into the night on the shadows of prayers. I swear you can almost touch the moon, stars & planets from here & really imagine their impossibly hot & impossibly cold orbits. I'm raving now but the river & mountain mist will snake around you like a procession of ghosts. You can sip the air here & feel that you are drinking a new world...' Luang Prabang, Laos, November 2008.