Prayer Beads

Still running full steam, so I missed yesterday’s TBT. Ah well, that just means that I’ll go with a FBF (Flashback Friday).

Since I have never done a FBF on these pages (that I can find), I’ll go with an image that has never been on these pages.

The image actually predates this blog by a couple of years, taken on March 13, 2005. Back then I apparently liked putting a thin black border around my images. And perhaps pushed the saturation a bit, although I do think that it was actually the result of a plugin replicating that lovely film Velvia.

Some of you might remember Fuji’s Velvia. It’s saturation was something to behold.

Anyway, these prayer beads are on the wrist of a Yamabushi monk as he observed the preparation of a bed of coals. The coals were to be part of a purification ritual—a firewalk.

If you click on that last link, you’ll see that the monks do the actual fire walking. Once they are done, they spread the coals out, clear a path between and let the public stroll through the smoke. No danger of burning the feet, as Goddess, the Boy, and I found out.

Regardless, hopefully you take advantage of this weekend to stretch yourself, whether it be intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, or physically.

Perhaps a bit of all four.