There's No Time Like Now to Radically Accept

‘Time and tide wait for no man’ as they say. A quote that’s often attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer, it’s been on my mind this Easter holidays. I thought this would be the year I’d go to Bologna for the children’s book fair, but I’m on a self imposed writing retreat in Bali, revising a short story commissioned by an education press, instead. This is my fifth time on the island. I stayed at Ubud, Bali’s arts and cultural centre, where I drafted this post. Then, I headed to Sanur, a town on the East coast of Bali, where I finished my revisions on deadline. While I was in Sanur, the Balinese celebrated the full moon on April 12th, 2025. Known as Purnama, it’s a monthly celebration, dedicated to the deity, Sang Hyang Chandra. The Balinese are Hindus — the only ones in predominantly Muslim Indonesia. Their rituals are ancient and Vedic, and Purnama is a ceremony that cleanses the body and soul. 

Credit: Andesite statue of Chandra from Java, late-9th to early-10th century CE, Museum Rietberg, Zürich.

About Tide

The full moon does something to a woman’s psyche, it is said. It is not scientifically proven, but the connection between the full moon and a woman's psyche is a popular belief, particularly in folklore and cultural traditions. I could feel something in the air and within me shifting but I didn’t know then what it was. But I do know that  I don’t believe there are such things as coincidences. To put this in another way — I believe that things happen for a reason. Harsh as it may sound and I have no intention to be harsh at all. Let me explain: I’ve been reading Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, PhD. It is a memoir filled with Brach’s lived experiences as a counsellor and Buddhist, interweaved with soul-searching advice and exercises. At the core of the book is the importance of accepting yourself — flaws, warts and all. But before you can do this, you must go deep. 

As writers, we often have to go deep within ourselves so that we can write authentically and produce the best book we can write. I didn’t intend to read this book if not for my daughter who chanced upon it while waiting for a friend to get ready for a party. The book was on his bookshelf and she’d picked it up and read about ten pages before saying to herself, I want to continue reading this book. Then when we were at the bookshop in Singapore on transit to Bali, she said that she’d like to buy this book for her beach read. Of course, as a reading parent who wants nothing more than for her young adult children to get off their phones and devices to read, I said, ‘of course’, even though the book cost a hefty SGD$36 (approximately £21); my mind was also on tariffs and how this will impact the book trade. Anyhow… 

Credit: Eva Wong Nava, Instagram

The daughter and I have been sharing the book. I’ve read quite a bit more than her. But we’re not in competition. It’s only because she’s been working on her tan and Español, and my Kindle has died. And in my menopausal brain fog, I had forgotten to pack the charger for it. SIGH! And  I was in a panic because a holiday is never a good one without a book, or several books, hence the Kindle. I was reading Butter, but this’ll have to wait now. 

Credit: Book cover from Amazon UK

On the second day into reading Radical Acceptance, I took a break and logged into Facebook (much as I want to leave this social media platform, I can’t as I have friends and family all over the world who are there). And what did I see on a friend’s post? A street in New York City —  West 109th Street between Riverside and Broadway — co-named as Thích Nhất Hạnh Way. He was none other than the Zen Master (died: January 22, 2022) who had made profound contributions to mindfulness, peace, and social transformation worldwide, and this was where he had lived in the 1960s when he was studying and teaching at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. Why am I telling you this? 

His was the name that appears on the front cover of Tara Brach’s updated edition of Radical Acceptance, with a quote (first published in 2003): 

‘An invitation to embrace ourselves with all our pain, fear, and anxieties.’ 

About Time

Since my last blog post — I wrote about how M_ta stole our books — I’ve been thinking a lot about  acceptance, writing and the arts in general. Mainly, why when it comes to our livelihoods and rights as artists, there is so little respect for either. When the economy is on a downturn, the arts sector is the first to suffer! And this includes the library sector as well. As we know libraries haven’t been getting the essential funding they need since 2010. A recent BBC analysis has found that since 2016, more than 180 council-run libraries have either been shuttered or given over to volunteer-run groups. 

As I watched the sea ebb away one afternoon in Sanur, my mind wandered to Artificial Intelligence. I have no idea why that would happen since what I’m seeing in front of me is not artificial at all. It’s time that we rethink AI, I felt, when beds of seaweed started to show. AI is here to stay and yes we must protect our copyright but we must also accept that what the experts are calling Artificial Intelligence is not going away any time soon. It was painful for me to reconcile this. I am scared and anxious. I am not saying that I’ll be embracing AI, but I know I must accept that it’s here to stay, and I will have to learn as much as I can about it — knowledge beats fear, as my father has always said — to understand exactly what its “power” is and how to prepare myself. 

No matter your stance on AI, as a writer here’s what you can do: Choose on what platforms you want to share your writing. Unless you opt out, I wouldn’t advice ChatGPT. Use Plottr instead. (Caveat: I am not earning any commissions on this and I am not promoting Plottr — read the rules and regs before you start using it.) 

Share only what you’re comfortable to share because anything you put out there (and this includes blog posts, your children’s photos, doodles and sketches and academic essays) will be used one way  or another as resources to train AI machines. 

About Inspiration 

As the tide changes, the world continues to turn and morph. At every epoch in human civilisation and since ancient times, our lives have been filled with technology. How was Borobudur or the Pyramids built if not for technology? Or paddy fields ploughed before mechanical ploughs took over? How were modern-day catamarans built without prior knowledge of the traditional outriggers used by the Austronesian people of Southeast Asia?

Credit: Eva Wong Nava, holiday snapshots

We are living in interesting times, and we can use our experiences and knowledge to guide us in writing the best book we can write at each step of the way, despite the dissonance trumpeting around at the moment. This will pass soon enough like the ever-changing tides and the phases of the moon. 

As some of you will know, I love folktales, folklore and myths. I’ve lived with them all my life as a child of the diaspora growing up in Southeast Asia, where magic is mixed with reality. Is it a coincidence that magical realism is my favourite genre? I’m working on a set of stories inspired by my childhood in Southeast Asia. We have folktales, myths and legends galore here that I feel children need to know. Is it a coincidence that I should be here in Bali and not in Bologna? 

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Eva Wong Nava has done many things in life, but writing remains her most favourite thing to do! Find Eva on Instagram @evawongnava and one her website: https://evawongnava.com/