meet gabriela…. it is long overdue. making my bali-crew of beautiful-creative-souls (i already introduced you to helena and leanna) complete. no wonder i we reminisce about it so much…. (here you can see my collective bali-posts)

for one, gabriela helped me to dive more into “exchange of energy” (as she calles it). rather than paying money for a thing or a service, it is much more rewarding to exchange things in a creative and more personal way. a topic i started tapping into since staring my life as a vagabond… it gives you a feeling you can’t buy. i had finished the book “just kids” by patti smith and found it so inspiring, that i wanted someone special to have it. i gave it to gabriela, who (i was happy to hear) after absorbing patti’s words, also passed it on to a friend. in exchange she (as an licensed body worker and massage therapist) gave me an incredible massage.

even though we only had a short time together…. waaaay to short, i will cherish her energy forever. she shared her story with me openly, and i admire her, not only for this but how strong she became through her experiences. every hardship in life is manageable and even profitable. learn from it and turn it into beauty. (something that louise bourgeois mastered. see my post on her here).

little things that make her smile:

“kids being free… letting their wild-play take over. it reminds me… in an instant… to let go and be silly, to remove the filters from my vision and see clearly.” – gabriela santagata

march 2015, bali, indonesia… photos by me

p.s.: and let’s not forget that, thanks to gabriela, i am totally hooked on durian!