I'm looking out at the prayer flags hung over my garden. I love the concept of the prayer flag. (and in this case the flapping just might deter the deer from lunching on my greens, but that's a beautiful latent function. I would hang them anyway) This idea that one can place an intention, a hope, a desire, a need, (call it a prayer if you like) onto these small blocks of fabric, and then, over time, as the threads drift away that prayer is lifted up into the universe.
I like that.
I also like that each time I see these flags, because the process of fully transmitting the physical matter into the universe takes time, it reminds me of my original intention. It reinforces it and asks me to check in about what I am doing today to make this prayer happen. I like the phrase "Trust in Allah but tie up your camel".
Faith is important, even crucial, but in general it's up to us to make the thing happen.
Without getting too Hallmark on you, I might suggest that each of us is like a small prayer flag. We move about the world, losing threads one by one to the people and situations that end up defining us. Sometimes they are given freely, a gift of comfort, of understanding, of support, of Love. Other times they are ripped from us in ways that feel violent and unjust, and only in hindsight do we see that it could not have been any other way. That piece of us needed to let go in that way. More often they float off and leave a subtle trace of our essence, a memory and maybe even an inspiration. A token of the best of us that we have to give. They get picked up and woven into other people's lives. Into their own nests, into their own flags.
Just like those squares of color floating over my garden this morning, we can place intention on our own essence.
What will you leave behind as you move though the world today?