“That is perfect. This is perfect.
Perfect comes from perfect.
Take perfect from perfect, the remainder is perfect.
May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.”
– The Upanishads
I really like prayer flags. The idea of the wind carrying words and prayers and blessings pleases me.
This Spring I participated in a call to artists and non-artists alike to create prayer flags for a community prayer flag installation in downtown Phoenix. I considered it an honor to have my flag hanging with hundreds of others.
I made my flag a prayer for peace.
I enjoy working with materials that are re-purposed, and I chose to use vintage sari fabrics. In the center of the flag is a heart, and before stitching it on with tiny vintage glass beads, I stuffed the heart with slips of paper on which I had written my prayers for peace. On the outside center of the heart I placed a peace pin. I stitched the heart itself on a piece of fabric with a horizontal and vertical bar, representing the sending of peace out in all directions, on all paths.
My cousin, an artist and photographer, lives in Phoenix and also participated. She found our respective flags after they had been hung and took some photographs. It made me laugh to see that someone had liberated the peace pin from my heart. I like to think they’re carrying a bit of peace in a new direction. That can only be a good thing. And in the meantime I try to keep my own heart filled with as many messages of peace as I filled the flag with.