Dreams.
Wedding planning.
Pedanda.
Temple.
I have had a dream Monday night and one last night. I won’t say much about them, but will say that they were more vivid than I normally would have. It seems that many others in our group are also having vivid dreams.
We’re getting married! Yes, that’s not exactly news then, is it? Bali had news for us today. We began the day with a purification ceremony. What will we do for our wedding? Where will we be? What will we wear? Beth and I began some conversations with David and Reba (the wonderful woman coordinating all our adventures) and it’s all magic from here on out.
Today is day two of thirteen on our tour with David Patten. He has arranged for one of the island’s few Pedandas to perform the ceremony. It was a beautiful, and new ceremony where we were literally bathed from the head down in water. Five of us went through the ritual at a time, which consisted of water, incense, and rice. Rice is enormously important here in Bali, so much so that the fact that they now are net importers of rice is actually a huge deal.
Now that we are purified we made our way to our first temple of the tour, Temple on the outskirts of Ubud. We wore temple costume, which for men consists of sarong, seput, udong, and sash. For women, they wear sarong and sash, and a shirt that covers armpits. Let me say just a little something about sarongs and sashes. They rock. Absolutely. The sash reprepresents the promise or commitment to remain (grounded) in the middle world. The Balinese hindu belief system says there is a upper world of the gods, lower world of demons, and middle world where humans reside. It’s infinitely more complicated than I could explain and certainly more than I understand now, but the commitment to stay in the middle world represented by the sash is beautifully full of intent and integrity.
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| 2-5 Temple, Free Day, Three Monkeys, Dance |