I’m not really in the mood to write much today so I’m just going to write a little bit to catch up and write more later.
Today Wayan will pick me up at 3:00pm to go visit a Bali orphanage and then we’ll go visit his priest to give him the picture that I had framed for his temple.
We were supposed to go visit his priest last night but I was still recovering from the ‘Bali Belly’ that I experienced a few nights ago when I got very, very sick so I had to cut our tour short yesterday.
Sheesh.
I can’t believe I’m still feeling sick. I usually have a very strong constitution but a couple of days ago I ate at a local Warung (think Indonesian diner) twice in one day.
Now I just simply pass the many Warungs on my daily strolls and I can feel my stomach cringe. You can bet I won’t be entering another one ever again!
It’s too bad because the food was good and cheap.
But the price to pay is too high…
The night I got sick (before I got sick), I went with Wayan and his family to a Temple Ceremony.
I continue to be so moved by Balinese spirituality. It lacks the flash, talk and preachyness that I see in America (sorry if I’m offending anyone; I realize this is completely my own perception of American spirituality and perhaps it is the way I have practiced my own spirituality!)
In Bali, spirituality is a quiet reverence and constant sacredness. It has nothing to do with anyone else and is not done to impress anyone else or to change anyone else’s viewpoint but rather Balinese spirituality is a mostly solitary act that occurs multiple times per day.
A woman near my hotel will come out in the morning with an offering (a variety of flowers and fruit artfully arranged on a banana leaf with a stick of incense). She will light the incense and put a flower petal between her fingers and kneel in prayer with the flower petal between her fingers. To witness her each morning feels like an honor.
And when I watch her I feel a bit like a voyeur.
She does this offering three times a day.
As do all Balinese people. (Some do it more per day but three times is the norm.)
Being with Wayan’s family and going to the Temple Ceremony was such a rich experience.
I was the only tourist at the Temple Ceremony so I got many stares and smiles from the Balinese people.
Wayan’s family was so hospitable to me.
They gave me the beautiful top I’m wearing above and plied me with food and then we walked to the temple. His 11-year-old niece held my hand and would pull me close to her when motorbikes would zip past me.
We waited outside for about 10 minutes and then were let in when the prior temple goers exited. I sat down cross-legged on the dirty ground and was sprinkled with holy water, given flowers to pray with and taught how to pray by Wayan’s 11 year old niece.
The temple was quiet.
The air was filled with the sacred.
I think I’ll end there for now.
Tomorrow I go to India (3 flights with many layovers, one a 10-hour layover in Singapore so I’ll be staying at an airport transit hotel).
I’ll have lots of time to write in between flights so if it feels right, I’ll write more then.
About Me: 
