Tag Archives: Asian

Sacred Space

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Yesterday was the seventh anniversary and although I had a quiet moment, I didn’t celebrate like I used to each year because I have no ‘home’. I’m still living out of boxes (which can be utterly frustrating at times) so I still don’t have my sacred space with my collection of sacred objects. Where I’m currently living is not my home, it’s a transitional place… a passage from one phase in live to another, a phase of cleansing, forgiving and rejuvenating.

But just because I have no sacred space, doesn’t mean I didn’t think about things; I did contemplate. But it was different this year… I cooked (my recipe), not the traditional Indonesian meal but one that my dad used to enjoy very much come to think of it. Braising steak with carrots, sweet onions, a bulb of garlic, bay leaf, cloves, stock and some secret ingredients *wink*. It had been simmering for hours filling the house with a beautiful aroma.

Later in the evening I stood outside watching the sky and talking to my dad while the wind was roaring around the house. After seven years of spending this day without my family for profound reasons I got to spend it with them today, not by choice but merely because it just happened to be that way. It was okay… but next year I will spend it near my sacred space again because next year I will have moved on to the next phase of live…

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As in many sacred architectural forms in Indonesia, the house is not only seen as a mere dwelling place, it is regarded as a symbol of the cosmos linking the divine world to that of man. In such places, the immaterial world and the material world are continuously interacting, and the harmony between the living and the world beyond is kept through rituals and offerings. As the invisible penetrates into the world of the living, so it needs to be identified in the material world.

Each of the spirits are given their appropriate attributes as tangible objects, and it is through these objects that they are identified during rituals. If the house is regarded as a living, heavenly altar on earth, ancestor worship is also common within the village and elsewhere needing blessings from the invisible forces.

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New Theme: Asian Style…

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I haven’t had much personal time, hence my absence from blogging but yesterday I felt like taking a break from building websites and have some ‘me-time’. I’ve wanted to change the theme of my blog for a while but never took time to do it. I love theme design and the challenge is to make it work cross platform which most seem to forget about resulting in bad coding and/or design. But then again that’s what makes me stand out *ahem*.

I haven’t written much because I also have to admit that I’m feeling a bit down in the dumps lately. It’s not bad bad but I have lost a bit of zest, mainly because I’m dealing with a few problems. One is a major allergy that has been acting up for two months now causing inflammation. It stops me from running along the canal (workout) and at times even from socialising. I don’t want to go into details but my health is far from good at the moment.

I’m postponing seeing a doctor as usual because I know she will send me to a specialist at the hospital and I’ll end up fighting the symptoms again and not the cause which is typically a scientific and medical approach which I try to avoid if possible. But I have to admit I’m close to being desperate and I want this condition to end asap and the only way to do that is taking the medication they’ll prescribe which is hardcore unfortunately.

It’s a vicious circle; the condition keeps me from sleeping because of the inflammation and because I have no sleep, healing takes forever or the condition aggravates. Okay… enough of that… but it is the main reason for not having the zest to write. So yesterday when I decided to do something for me, I was basically giving myself a gift by taking a break from clients (I have another Flash website lined up from Scotland next week).

So… what do you think? I collect fruit stickers -don’t ask!- and was inspired by the simple design of one so I changed it into my own and that triggered the rest of it… I thought it would be nice to have a green phase for a while. It represents nature, renewal, balance, love, self-control, healing, emotional safety and is soothing… No wonder I chose these colours *wink*. And for the design freaks: all is done in Illustrator…

(ps: don’t forget to clear your browser cache and refresh a few times, it might act pesky on pc *of course* mixing old and new design *hehe*)