beach findings

Having woken up before dawn, I decided to take my first walk along this northeastern shoreline and hopefully watch the sunrise…

When I reached the shore, about 50 metres from my room, I found the tide out and a long open coastline that I could walk along, that had a low mist hanging over it.

The fishermen were each slowly rolling their narrow wooden hand carved and decorated boats on pieces of log so that they could reach the water without having to force the boat along the large stoney beach. As I walked along I smiled and said hello to each of them…but apparently these fishermen are a different breed than the villagers…no one returned my hello or smile….not even the children that were trying to catch some fish before going to school….the feeling I got was more like "what are you doing in our territory early in the morning, and why?" it is strange for everyone that a person just "goes for a walk"…and even more so that I did tai chi there.

What was especially nice is that it is so clean…no rubbish around, just all the ceremonial paraphernalia that will slowly recycle itself with the help of the sea. After the old woman yesterday had so ruthlessly removed my carefully inserted and hard earned little pieces of bamboo staples from the folded leaf bowl I was learning to make, I decided that I can do the same. So I picked up one of the little triangular cups made from a leaf and started to remove the bamboo pins to try and discover how they made it. What I found was a 20 centimeter long and 4 cm. wide palm leaf that was just folded origami style using the bamboo pins to hole it in place.

I continued to look at what the tide had washed in at night, and discovered over 20 different designs, within a few steps along the beach….what a treasure chest of culture laying here in the brown "rubbish" brought in by the sea…and as I continued to take each one apart, I continued to discover more or less the same materials: either young yellow soft pieces of palm leaf or the tougher dark green ones already with a "backbone" to them…each some 20 cm. long, but either folded or cut with a small knife making intricate patterns visually when folded into these beautiful decorations. As I continue to look at them, I began to "hear" their story; of the women that spend most of their day preparing offerings for the house, shop, temple, family altars, holidays, weddings, births, teeth cuttings, funerals….so each one is using her hands to craft an object from natural materials that grow in her garden, or are purchased at the market, and thus creating each day useful and decorative pieces to bring visual pleasure to the god(s). what is interesting is that they are made just like the Ramayana play was put on…so that from all sides there is something to see, something with intention…something "whole", in the round, never frontal, but taking into account that when the offering is placed on their heads, those walking behind you will also enjoy the beauty. Also all of the offerings are done in 360 degree designs…what I am trying to get across is that all of this is done, all of this daily creativity and handicrafting is done from nature to be returned to nature in a few hours, and in the interim is a gift of intention from the women that created them…they have no use or purpose as objects. Neither do the masks, or the offerings,,,,It is all just for the moment that they are used "to serve" something "Higher". That is the only meaning of it all. A minute later it is stepped on, swept aside, pushed off into the sea by the rain that flows through the streets clearing all the offerings that were placed down earlier…They are for the moment itself…if I accidentally step on it when entering the shop, so what, it has finished its purpose and with time will disintegrate, as so does our physical body, leaving only the intentions of each moment that were made from the heart to God.

"God" in gematria equals "Nature"....same-same!