Fivelements – a love story
The Fivelements story is nearly unbelievable. It started in a magical way and has been an extraordinary healing journey for all involved.
The first inkling I had that Bali would be central to my life was thanks to a clairvoyant in San Francisco in 1995, who said I would invest in something very important in Bali that would bridge East and West.
Fast forward to autumn 1996 when I visited Bali for the first time. The moment I arrived, I felt Bali as my home. I felt immediately connected. And I felt God for the first time in my life in a profound way. Bali became my well of wisdom, healing and spirituality. Every time I visited, I left with an important love lesson. I knew I’d live here some day...
My two young daughters and I moved to Bali in 2005. Following a year-long personal healing journey, one morning I woke up with a very strong message. “It’s time. Time to get out there and put intention back into the world. I wish to find my love and life partner and begin a new journey with deep purpose.”
The first shoe drops
Soon after this realization, in the middle of a walking meditation on the beach of my small fishing village of Pantai Seseh, a tropical storm suddenly hit. Boom, crash, boom! I quickly started running home through the pouring rain and fell into a tall grassy patch and lost my sandal. I was disheveled, drenched and covered with mud, but a kind Balinese man came to my rescue and invited me into a nearby home. Inside was Chicco reading a book, enjoying a peaceful stormy evening alone.
Chicco and I spent the next three glorious weeks together before he had to return to his native Italy. One day he texted me in the middle of the night from Milan. Strangely, I’d been up recording a vivid dream in my journal about running a healing center in Bali. It had been a long-held wish of mine since my first ever visit. “It’s not just a dream,” said Chicco. “It’s real, and I have a similar dream.”
We both returned from our June travels and spent the rest of the summer falling in love. That fall, we shared our visions.
A six sense and another shoe drops
A few months earlier and without a plan, Chicco had been shown a piece of land just south of Ubud on the Ayung River by his long-time friend and head of their Balinese fishing village. “I just felt the land the first time I went there and instantly fell in love with it. Within minutes, I put a small deposit on the land and asked the owners to give me six months to pay the rest or lose it,” he told me. “I left that day with a strong premonition but no plan at all.”
In early September 2006, about to lose his deposit, Chicco returned to the land to see it one more time, but this time he brought me along. I walked on the land, and I could feel something truly amazing. This was it. This was the land that would host all our dreams to make a better world. This land was waiting for us. Moments later, as ridiculous as it sounds, I fell into the rice field and lost my shoe again. Surely a sign!
A few days later, equipped with a photograph he took of the river that day and a big dream to share, Chicco flew out to meet with a couple based near the Alps in Europe. An hour into the meeting, the couple joined the project, and a few weeks later, Chicco’s Balinese friend from that first land introduction and his wife joined us as well.
Sharing the dream
Together, we began sharing our vision of creating a beautiful place of healing, cultural preservation and spiritual dialogue. A place to nurture human evolution and life transformation, it would embrace a new kind of luxury – the perfection of nature and the concept of life-long learning and sustainability. It would be a place for learning to love and respect life.
What you see today was inspired by all our dreams for a better world.
And so Fivelements’ vision was born.
Bali has given me my life in so many ways. Fivelements is a story of faith, vision and love. It is a place where other people can gently engage on an authentic healing journey, reconnect with their inner truth and find their own Love in Action.
Love all, serve all,
Lahra Tatriele, Co-founder & Vision Director, Fivelements
