A Mission to The Paddy Fields
We spent the first day of the new year surfing at a reef break in Sri Lanka by morning and hanging in a rice paddy field by evening. I couldn’t have thought of a better way to start 2018. This year, we’re making it a mission to do more with our time, more efficiently. There are too many moments in time thrown away delving into the depths of our mobile phones or waiting for those “other” magical moments to happen. Sometimes, you just have to go out and create them yourself.
If you’ve ever been to Sri Lanka, you’ll know that things tend to slow down to a sweet, dull lull. While this often times has me driving myself mad, it does force me to live in the present. It reminds me that we only have the now to exist, and sometimes that really is all you need. I remember once reading that thinking of the past will bring about depression, thinking of the future will bring about anxiety, but thinking in the present - well, the present should be about happiness. For if all you have to worry about is within your life in the exact moment and shared space, then what else really needs to be there?
We set off at about 5 in the evening to shoot around in some rice paddy fields back in the jungles of Ahangama - a coastal town in Southern Sri Lanka. These might just be my favorite moments of traveling, coming together with a team to go out and create those moments that reflect the now. We set off into the jungle and found a road that split the paddy field in two. Almost immediately, a crowd of locals started to gather in fascination with what we were doing. Young children ran up and down the road, smiling and giggling, and of course asking “What is your name?” But when you answer and ask them in return, they simply smile back and run off. You get the idea it's a phrase they remember in English, but have no idea what it actually means.
Soon uncles, fathers, brothers, cousins and mothers joined in. Each motorcycle that passed eventually stopped to say hello and introduce themselves. We took a few passes on a little motorcycle to shoot some drone footage before deciding to change locations to shoot some photos.
We came across a smaller, more removed paddy field that you could walk into via a gully. Albeit a bit muddy, it was still nice to be out there catching the last of the day’s rays. All throughout each drive, you could here the locals shout out “Helloooo!” “Happy New Year!” “Where you going?”. The longer I’ve been here, I’ve gotten more accustomed to tuning these sound bites out as they are often constant and without intention, but today I joined in reacting to them. As we rode off into the twilight the full moon was peaking out in between some coconut trees.