Some weeks ago a friend in need asked me to hang a prayer flag for her somewhere on the farm. For some reason, she felt it would help her and she somehow knew I probably had prayer flags around and would feel good about helping the wind carry a prayer for her.
At the same time an old friend confided in me his wife was entering hospice. I was also having some internal challenges of my own and it all seemed to merge on one day- all these creatures, including me, needing some wind love. And then I was reminded of an illustration I had done years ago about a 'wishing tree' where the culture would leave tokens and notes at the base of a special tree, hoping their wishes would come true.
And that is how my Healing Tree was born. It sits at the base of Donkey Hill, looking up at Old Oak to the right, and Old Barn to the left...and donkeys meandering by at any given moment, and a goat or two since Iris and Stella live with the donkeys. I like to go to the tree, still young with prayers, and breathe in and out and ask that those who need these prayers, get them.
I love the idea of the wind carrying prayers, and I find that the wind does just that. When my father died, as I wrote in my "Misfits of Love" book, he became the wind the moment he died. I still can feel electrified on certain blustery days, for it was very gusty the day I found out he died.
I have been painting and creating a lot in the studio, and it seems the prayer flags are on my mind, or in my heart. Today I found out my friend's wife who went into hospice did die. I like to think of those two white strips of cotton out there on my Healing Tree as the two of them, together in love and floating in prayer, eternally, in the wind. I do believe that if we desire to send healing to someone, it does get there, even if it is in tiny amounts-sparks of love that a person far away might feel, days later even, when the wind blows against his face.
