Tag Archives: Respect

Sacred Space

Posted on by

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…

——————————

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.

——————————

The Ghost

Posted on by

What I mentioned some time ago has happened, the ghost from the past tried to sneak into my life again… I was being watched thru this social networking website but it was a silent game of ‘Please notice my presence, I’m on the friends list of our mutual friend ‘Kay’… Aren’t you as curious about me as I am about you? Perhaps we could be friends again and forget my pathetic hurtful behaviour back then?‘

Nothing happened for months and of course I couldn’t be bothered to be dragged into another one of her games; I’m not fifteen anymore. I left messages for ‘Kay’ just like I did before the ghost showed up in her friends list. To my surprise (but then again not because I was expecting it in a way) I received an email through this professionals networking website which I used for business purposes only at the time.

It was surprising in a way because it meant she must have Googled me, there is no other way to find out about this profile of mine. She’d sent me a friend request and a short line telling me that she was wondering how I’m doing. I had no internet connection at the time when she sent me the request so she had been waiting for weeks already when I found it in my inbox the moment I was online again downloading my emails.

I kept her waiting for another two more weeks before I replied to her saying: ‘I’m good, thank you for asking’ and I left it at that. Of course I didn’t add her to my friends list, what was she thinking? I’m done with this, I have been ever since I sent her that email to wish her well. If she wants to satisfy her curiosity about me or get rid of her guilt she should try an apology first that’s one way to open communication lines again.

It’s such a lame way to use a friends request to wriggle yourself through the keyhole of a door that had been shut years ago. If she’d been genuine and sincere she would’ve known how to handle this the right way and write me a proper email instead. She has my business email address, it hasn’t changed for 8 years and since she’s visited my business website she could tell… When you bargain with a fox, beware of tricks.