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| Men preparing a wedding feast |
When in Bali last week the main thing my godmother and i wanted to experience was the true authenticity of the balinese lifestyle, what their culture looked like, their daily life felt life, and get to know what this beautiful place truly was outside of a top tourist destination. We were blessed with a guide who lived in one of the villages of Ubud who took us around the city. He taught us all about the different villages, how there was a wood carving village, a silver village, a fabric village, a painting village and many more. He took us into households where we got to talk to all the families that lived in them and see what their lives actually looked like. I was completely taken aback by their lack of hostility and absolute overpowering sense of hospitality. We were complete strangers and yet for the most part these people were more than willing to open their homes for us to see.
When seeing inside all the villages something i admired was their value in community. Their villages are all they have so they use it as survival. When someone passes away the entire village contributes money to pay for the funeral and the eventual cremation (cremations are expensive so every 5 years cremation ceremonies are performed for loved ones once enough money has been saved). When there is a wedding, families gather days before to begin making offerings, killing their livestock, and preparing foods. They take pride in celebrating one another and helping each other, they don't see it as a burden they see it as a priority as something that is completely natural and necessary. The Lord made life to be lived in community, in community with the Lord and with fellow believers. When God created man, he said "let us create man in our image" he did not say in my image. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, that is the community. God created man to be lived in community like the one it was created from. All these villagers have is their community. Life has not been easy to these people, however, i imagine the stress of it is not as heavy knowing they have an entire village on their side to overcome whatever battles lie in their path. I think it's easy to think we can do this life on our own, but it wasn't designed that way. It's almost like our selfishness, our pride is causing us to make life harder than it was intended to be. I think community is wearing each others burdens so one person isn't being crushed by it alone, community is acknowledging peoples gifts, its not jealous, but its wanting to further the people around you because they're your brothers and sisters. The balinese have everything to fear and also nothing to fear at all because they're rooted in something deeper than themselves; each other.
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| Village rehearsing for a cremation ceremony |
When seeing inside all the villages something i admired was their value in community. Their villages are all they have so they use it as survival. When someone passes away the entire village contributes money to pay for the funeral and the eventual cremation (cremations are expensive so every 5 years cremation ceremonies are performed for loved ones once enough money has been saved). When there is a wedding, families gather days before to begin making offerings, killing their livestock, and preparing foods. They take pride in celebrating one another and helping each other, they don't see it as a burden they see it as a priority as something that is completely natural and necessary. The Lord made life to be lived in community, in community with the Lord and with fellow believers. When God created man, he said "let us create man in our image" he did not say in my image. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, that is the community. God created man to be lived in community like the one it was created from. All these villagers have is their community. Life has not been easy to these people, however, i imagine the stress of it is not as heavy knowing they have an entire village on their side to overcome whatever battles lie in their path. I think it's easy to think we can do this life on our own, but it wasn't designed that way. It's almost like our selfishness, our pride is causing us to make life harder than it was intended to be. I think community is wearing each others burdens so one person isn't being crushed by it alone, community is acknowledging peoples gifts, its not jealous, but its wanting to further the people around you because they're your brothers and sisters. The balinese have everything to fear and also nothing to fear at all because they're rooted in something deeper than themselves; each other.
I think the Balinese have preserved idea of community and i absolutely admired it, it made the reasoning for their joy despite their situation understandable.
Oh bali you've done it again...
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