Chapter 25 Indonesian Stories (24)

How a single mother in Bali, facing forced eviction, was able to take in two extra street children — it's beyond my comprehension of compassion. I want to help them. This is exactly where the trembling feeling I experienced deeply after meeting my eldest sister for the first time.I want to help this single mother and her daughter and two orphans, I want to help them have a better life.I just don't know how to start.But today, as my eldest sister, Armenia, and I were having lunch, having our usual empathetic, exposing conversations, I noticed that Tutti was doing something rather strange.She walks around the shop with a beautiful little square of silver-blue tile in her hands, singing in a sort of recitative fashion.I watched her for a while to see what she wanted to do.Tutti juggles the tile for a while, throwing it in the air, whispering, singing, and pushing along the floor like a matchbox car.Finally, she sat on the tiles in a quiet corner, closed her eyes and chanted to herself, immersed in some kind of mysterious and invisible space that belonged to her.

I asked my eldest sister what was going on with all this.She said Tutti found the tile outside the construction site of a luxury hotel building down the road and took it for himself.Ever since Tutti discovered this tile, she kept telling her mother: "If we have a house someday, we might have this beautiful blue floor." According to the eldest sister, Tutti now often sits on this small piece of blue tile. Hours on end on the tiles, closing your eyes and pretending to be in your own house. what should i sayI heard about it, saw the kid meditating on his little blue tile, and thought, "Okay, let's do it."

I left the store early to sort out this excruciating matter once and for all. My eldest sister once told me that when she was treating patients, she would sometimes become an open conduit for God's love to flow through, and she would stop thinking about what she needed to do next.Intellect stops, instinct takes its place, and she just has to let her divinity flow through her."It felt like a gust of wind came and took my hand," she said. Perhaps it was this gust of wind that also blew me out of my eldest sister's shop that day, so that I no longer worried about whether I should start "dating", but instead led me to a local Internet cafe in Ubud, sat down and wrote--in one breath Made Easy - A fundraising letter to friends and family around the world.

Let me tell you that my July birthday is approaching, and I am about to turn thirty-five.I tell them that in this world, I lack nothing, and that I have never been happier in this life than I am now.I told them that if I were in New York, I was going to throw a stupid big birthday party and they would all come and have to bring me presents, good wine, and the whole celebration would be ridiculously lavish.So, I explained that a cheaper and nicer way to celebrate is to have my family and friends join forces to help a woman named "WayanNuriyasih" buy a house in Indonesia for herself and her children.

Then I told the whole thing about my eldest sister, Tutti, the two orphans and their situation.As much as I promise to donate, I will take out a corresponding amount from my savings.I explained that of course I was well aware that there was untold suffering and wars in the world and that everyone needed help, but what could we do?This small group of people in Bali has become my family, and we have to take care of family no matter where we meet them.As I wrap up this long letter, I am reminded of what my friend Susan said to me nine months ago, before I embarked on this world tour.She worried that I would never return home.She said, "I know who you are, Lily. You're going to meet someone, fall in love with him, and end up buying a house in Bali."

Standard prophet, this Susan. I checked my email the next morning and seven hundred dollars had been raised.Another day, and the donations exceeded what I could afford. I'm not going to go into the whole drama of that week, or explain how I felt each day as I opened the "count me in" letters from all over the world.Everyone is willing to give.I personally know people who are bankrupt or in debt donate money without hesitation.One of the first responses I got was from a friend of my hairdresser's girlfriend who donated fifteen dollars after receiving the forwarded letter.My most self-righteous friend, John, naturally starts with a sarcastic remark about how long, sentimental, and emotional my letter is ("Listen—the next time you feel you have to cry over spilled milk, make sure Condensed milk, okay?"), but he donated anyway.My friend Annie's new boyfriend (a Wall Street banker whom I haven't even met) offered to donate twice as much as the final amount raised.And then the email started going around the world, and I started getting donations from people I didn't know at all.This act of global generosity is suffocating.Let's just wrap it up briefly - in just seven days since the initial plea was sent via email - family, friends and a bunch of strangers all over the world have helped me raise about $18,000 to donate to my sister to buy house.