All The Small Things

Mood: Ready for Beddy
Listening to: The bloody radio (StarFM) Wish they'd play my song!

Ok, so now that I've put it in the title, I can't not write about it... love those double negatives.

My gorgeous friend James and his fiancee are wonderful hippie types that are extremely talented, beautiful, attractive people. The sort of people that you could get really jealous of, if they weren't so lovely. We all know at least one person like that. So wonderful, but yet unaware of how wonderful they are. They are just so used to being that way its like they don't even notice. Sigh.

Anyway, my friend James spent a week with a bunch of Tibetan Monks last year, when they came to town to create a Prayer Mandala similar to this one:

Because I'm too lazy to explain the process to you, here's a grab from a website:

From all the artistic traditions of Tantric Buddhism, that of painting with colored sand ranks as one of the most unique and exquisite. In Tibetan this art is called dul-tson-kyil-khor, which literally means "mandala of colored powders." Millions of grains of sand are painstakingly laid into place on a flat platform over a period of days or weeks. When finished, to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists, the colored sands are swept up and poured into a nearby river or stream where the waters carry the healing energies throughout the world.

Anyway, the deal is that they sweep the thing up. So because my mate James was there with them, they gave him a bit of the sand to take home. They did the same this year, and even though he couldn't spend the whole week, he was there for the sweeping ceremony, and they gave him some of the sand. The rest of it went into the river. I went to visit him during the week, and when I told him about the renovations we are doing here at work at the moment, he gave me some of the sand to sprinkle to bless the new part of the building.

So yesterday, I had a chat to our wonderful tiler, and asked him if he would let me sprinkle out the sand under the tiles. (I figured that was the most permanent way to bless the room, if we set them into the floor) So he let me - he thinks I'm deranged - but he let me. Mind you, he knows me, so he already thought I was a bit imbalanced!

Actually, it was funny talking to him about it. He was amused at the start, but I explained the mandala etc, and he was really into it. He was saying that he'd never done a "holy" job before, he thought it was a bit cool really. I do too. Might make up a bit of a blurb to let folks know that the room is blessed. Bet there aren't any other buildings in this town that can claim that!

Except the churches maybe. Well obviously.

Anyway...

Wanted to share a bit more about the party on Saturday. This is a bit sad. You have been warned.

When I got to the party, I was accosted by a boy in an ape suit with Franjelico shots, insisting that "everyone had to have one" no worries. I'm up for that, in a pinch. (I had two... I like the stuff, what can I say!)

Shortly after, I was approached by the birthday boy himself, who was carrying a flask of what he claimed was Franjelico. After taking a shot (again - he guilted me with the "Everyones got to, its a shot out of respect" - I took that to mean out of respect for the occasion of his birthday. I was wrong.) And it wasn't Franjelico for the record. I don't know what it was - a concoction of every alcoholic spirit he could lay his hands on - anyway, it tasted vile. Had to have an immediate slurp of my tart fuel (pre-mix) to kill the burning on my tonsils! It was like the whole crew from Men at Work were in my head, but they all had jackhammers, even the Indian. Powerful stuff.

Later in the evening I ran into the lady who works in the shop next to mine. We've had lots of chats, because she lost her son three years ago, and I lost a very good friend almost 2 years ago, and its nice to talk to someone about that stuff who really can understand where you are coming from - you know?

She was at the party with her husband and their daughter. They're really good friends with the birthday lad, and then she told me that it was on the night of his 18th birthday party that her son was killed in a car crash. He was heading home from the party, and they hit a tree.

The "Shot out of respect" was for the birthday lads best mate, who would have been 21 this year if he had lived. I can't imagine having to hold a birthday party, having everyone celebrating, and having everyone thinking that the last time there was a party like this, our mate was killed. Actually, they bought the party forward a week from his birthday, to avoid the anniversary.

You have to give him credit though. Lots of blokes would have not talked about how they felt about that, but he did. There were speeches that mentioned him, and they weren't depressing, they were just usual 21st speeches. I remember the time when we...

All the same, there was a feeling that all the people there were really determined to have a good time - determined to a) give the party lad an awesome party to remember (which it definitely was!!!) but b) respect the memory of their friend, and honour him by living hard.

Its a beautiful thing to honour the memory of someone you loved. My friends name was Meg, and her family have set up a trust in her name to support an orphanage in Nepal in her honour. I got goosebumps when they told me what they were doing. We had the first fundraising dinner about 3 weeks ago, and it was an incredible success. It was a dinner dance, but nearly everything was donated, from the food to the band and the venue. That was great because it meant that almost all the money went straight to the orphanage.

I went over to their place to help set up and get ready for the dinner (butter rolls, set tables that sort of thing) and it was really weird being there with her family, but without her.

I've been out to visit her folks before, but I'd not been there when her whole family was home. Megs brothers and sister are hilarious, and when they all get home on the farm together its just a joy to be around them. I leave with a sore stomach from laughing so hard! But I just kept expecting Meg to come through the door. I had a chat to her mum about it, and she felt the same. But we agreed. Meg was there with us, and she was happy to see us all there thinking of her, helping others. She was a wonderful person, and she would have been out there on the dance floor for sure!

Bloggy,

Sass.

PS: Wish I knew how to put links in. Will have to consult my friend the STUD.