The Art of Gratitude in Bali

Everyday in Bali has a special significance.  The sun has risen, the crops have grown just a little bit more, and we awake to another day where the breath enters and exits the body.  This alone makes the day meaningful and for the Balinese, it is a reason to be grateful.

If you walk along any street, on the ground in front of every shop and house, you will see the daily offering put out by its inhabitants.  Usually made of nothing more than bamboo, coconut tree leaves, and flowers, the offerings are constructed each morning as it's own separate piece of art.  Step by step, a simple stroll down the street can easily turn into a long admiration of the beauty and skill of these tiny, organic art pieces.


The offerings aren't just made in any sort of mish-mash fashion - they are made with particular care to make sure that they are giving thanks for the things around them.  Everything must be made from natural materials as this is a way of returning the gifts to the Creator.  After all, as yummy as Twinkies are, they do not grow naturally trees, and would not be an appropriate way to say "Thank You" to the Creator.  

The most important part, we were told, is a white paste made from the betel leaf that is hidden inside a little conical shell.  In any offering, it is buried between the heaps of flower petals and ornaments, but just like our unseen hearts, it is absolutely essential.  An offering without betel is not an offering at all.

Making one of these offerings is not simple, either and there's no WalMart to go pick up one.  In fact, it is a delicate and time-consuming task.  You don't want to slap them together at the last moment like a belated birthday card to your co-worker.  After all, these are gifts to God, so they must be done with intention and care.  

First, everything begins with the humble coconut leaf.  The coconut leaf is like your paper if you are doing origami.  The leaf is then cut into the necessary shape for the particular offering you are making.  (If you cannot do the cutting, like us, leave it up to a respected elder.  They're good at this sort of thing.)


Next, you contort the leaves into the shape desired and secure the resulting figure with shards of bamboo.  This seems easy, but in reality, it's a difficult compromise between pushing hard enough to get the bamboo through the leaf but not pushing so hard as to completely rip the leaf.


This is NOT an essential step in the offering-making process, but you may want to try it just for kicks:


Lastly, take fresh flower petals and tastefully decorate the inside of the newly constructed coconut leaf art.  The colors of the flowers are not chosen at random, but are chosen to represent the trinity of Hindu, which are the 3 manifestations of God: Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu.


After making the offerings ourselves, we realized that this is probably a good form of meditation for the Balinese.  It requires a good deal of thought and concentration to do things correctly, and whenever the mind is focused, this allows the outside world to melt away and the stresses of life are no longer there.  On top of that, creating a daily work of beauty is a wonderful way to begin each and every day.

We're not particularly religious people, but seeing the offerings in the world makes us think to ourselves about what we are grateful for every single day.  Despite all the things that happen in our lives, we all have many things to be grateful for - having a daily reminder of that fact is a beautiful way to go about each and every day.

So, I'm going to end us by asking to you what the offerings ask to us every day: "What are you grateful for today?"