Deeply involved in Balinese culture, art, history, and religion for decades, Andrea and I chose to be married at our home by a local Hindu priest in our beautiful village on the slopes of an active volcano. The ceremony like the clothing we wore was Balinese traditional with dozens of offerings each highly symbolic.

This is the moment to pray while blanking ones mind, shortly after the ritual giving away of our individual selves and entering into a new life as a couple. A moment in which we enter a shared married life within the protective bonds of the village community.

Three days later while traveling home in a food stall that I had never before been to, the proprietor asked about my wife, and told other local customers about our traditional wedding.

News travels fast in a community that has so many bonds between its people.