Giving the Shrine a Shine after the Rain

Not long ago, I was on holiday in beautiful Phuket in Thailand. It was mid June, rainy season.

One morning I woke up and heavy rain was pouring down from the skies.

Thick relentless rain, unlike anything I get to experience in Melbourne, Victoria.

Some may get upset at the notion of rain on one's holidays. However, I love it. Nothing calms me quite as much as the warm embrace of sound and humidity tropical rain produces.

As the rain calmed, I went to sit out on the balcony, which offered a beautiful view on the mountains and bays surrounding the hotel.

Our room was on the first floor and looked to the left on the reception area, which included a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a small wooden house with small statues, as is customary to find in many homes and places of business is Thailand.

The shrine for the Lord Buddha was around three meters high, sitting on a white base and featuring the Buddha sitting under a gold adorned roof.

The house for the spirits sat a few meters to the side of it and was built from wood, featuring traditional Thai-style roof and small figures situated in and around it.

The heavy rain had stopped, and quickly two women in hotel uniforms appeared.

One started cleaning the shrine while the other stood nearby, under an umbrella sheltering her from the few remaining drops of rain.

The cleaning involved carefully wiping the white base of the shrine with a cloth, many parts being attended to twice.

Paraphernalia scattered across the shrine were moved and cleaned as required.

The women chatted.

Two gardeners appeared shortly after and started raking stray leaves that had collected around the shrine with straw brooms, wordlessly.

The two women moved over to the spirit house and the one that had been cleaning the shrine started wiping the wooden house, gingerly picking up each figurine.

One of the drivers who were whizzing around the hotel in electric golf carts started praying at the shrine, moving around it to cover all directions of the sky.

Then he stood out of sight from the main reception and checked his mobile phone for a good while before leaving.

The cleaning of the wooden spirit house was completed and the shrine was given a few last wipes here and there.

The two women left.

The shrine remained standing shining by itself.

The house of the spirits was in good order.

In my earlier days I was strictly opposed to all religion and superstition.

A rational capitalist analysis may question if the observed produced any value.

However, my older, less Northern German self looked at what was transpiring and felt to witness beauty.

I wonder about this: what could we all do, after heavy rain clouded our souls, to clean up and get ready for the day.