This past weekend I was privileged to participate in a dismantling ceremony for a beautiful piece of art in New York City. The work we took apart was a wonderful Rangoli created by Indigo Raffel, an environmental artist who has created many murals, labyrinths and natural sculptures around the U.S. According to Wikipedia, Rangoli is one of the most popular art forms in India. It is a form of sandpainting decoration that is used commonly outside homes in India. The term rangoli is derived from words rang (colour) and aavalli ('coloured creepers' or 'row of colours'). The motifs in traditional Rangoli are usually taken from Nature - peacocks, swans, mango, flowers, creepers, etc. The colours were traditionally drawn from natural dyes made with the bark of trees, leaves, and other organic substances.
Indigo's Rangoli was made using rice, lavender, frankincense, rose buds, pink peppercorns, juniper, mirrors, lentils and glass drops. If heaven has a scent, it might well be what we smelled as we swept the rangoli materials into small baskets. Part of the design was made with sticks that had been blessed by members of the Cabecar tribe of Costa Rica. They undertook this ceremony as a gesture to help heal the pain of the people of New York City after the 9/11 attacks. After we took the Rangoli apart, we fulfilled the wishes of the Cabecar people by planting the sticks into the soil of lower Manhattan near the edge of the Ground Zero site. The entire process was very spiritual and solemn. But there was joy in the house as well. The art had been on display in the museum of Trinity Church, a beautiful sanctuary in the financial district of lower Manhattan. The church yard was wild with the color of hundreds of tulips, cherry blossoms and daffodils. A wedding was underway while we engaged in our work. Just after we completed the last task, the strains of the Wedding Recessional sounded throughout the church and we caught a glimpse of the just-kissed bride's bliss. What a day!
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