The Beauty of Wrinkles
02.1.2012 We have two lines of prayer flags hanging over our back deck.
Prayer flags have many different purposes, including blessing the surrounding areas and providing good fortune (including for "all sentient beings").
I am certainly not an expert on the meaning behind prayer flags. I was given one strand by a friend and purchased the other strand at a local Tibetan shop. I once tried to research the meaning of all of the symbols on and colors of the flags, but got lost in logical over-analysis. I decided to leave it at this: I find them beautiful.
In observing them every morning, afternoon, and evening through our kitchen window, I've also learned a purpose or two of "sacred objects".
Such objects, while they are just material things, provide a symbolic connection to the meaning given to those objects. They invite us into an experience, remind us of "something more", and offer us a visual (sensual) reminder of right here, right now.
These prayer flags are impermanent. They are fraying, delicate, and have been through countless storms and varying degrees of weather. They've been tangled and frozen.
I find my love for them in their worn condition.
They wear openly the stories of the times they've been through.
They are faded from the brilliant sunny days where the kids and I went from park to park; they are earth-colored from one particularly heavy storm that brought dirt and leaves in a dance with the flags. They are frayed on every edge from where a gentle warm or bitterly cold wind has taken yet one more strand and carried it off on some whimsical journey.
Our "baggage", our wrinkles, our fears and our faults prove we are worn. This body, like the flags, are impermanent. Someday we too will return to the wind.
That mended heart and those scars are our stories. There is no need to cling to them nor to try and shed ourselves of them before it is time. We will change. We are changing. We weather what comes and wear the marks of those experiences.
And I think those marks are beautiful.
Be with those experiences before the threads are unraveled - celebrate the time you have to fly in the breeze. That storm blowing in is just another experience to be had.
These are what my flags whisper to me as I glance out the window. I rinse my glass and continue on my path.
Namaste.
Mindfulness, prayer flag, real life, reminder
Reader Comments (6)
Lisa... I just want to say that this is one beautiful post... beautiful words.. beautiful sentiment. A beautiful celebration of all things wabi-sabi.. including ourselves. Just beautiful!
Oh Lisa......
I filled up reading these oh so beautiful words today. Be it in the light of 'The elephant project' & in the process of being mindful of our hands - which incidentally I have never much loved/appreciated although through them I experience so much joy & love.... very curious that... it's what I'm wrestling with a the moment!! These shining words went straight to my heart & just what I needed... not just for my hands either but the whole of my physical body with its many wrinkles & scars. Thank you! Xxx
Oh Lisa, I had a bit of a cry reading this....for one I was meant to read this today, because my husband just hung some new fresh prayer flags on our deck yesterday, and I was thinking how it wont be long before they are weathered...weird. But I have been grappling with the whole aging process. I turn 44 on monday, Its hard to believe...I see the changes, the smile lines, the marks the sagging, cracks(you name it its all beginning to happen) the part of me that is wise and true doesnt care, knows that this is part of it, embraces the wisdom of it, but the part of me that is vain, that is attached despises it, and fears it....
Thank you for bringing this to light for me, becasue I really havent been admitting it to myself, and it needs to be healed a bit, breathed in and out, and honoured....
I love you sister,
Thank you for sharing this beautiful insight into prayer flags and hearts as well.
Mmm, so true. I too have prayer flags hanging in my studio and outside as well. I love the connection between their weathering and the "weathering" of our own bodies. This is what I love about growing older; you come to appreciate and love more gently your own "worn" self more and more. I enjoyed this week's Wild Elephant practice for this reason. I have finally come to a place in my life where I can honestly and completely love my own hands...worn, working hands, short but strong fingers, wide palms, short nails often caked in paint, and changing skin. By all beauty standards they fail. But to me now, I cherish them like my worn out flags. I could not be who I am nor express my creative inn
er self without them. Beautiful post. Thanks for sharing.
What a beautiful post. We have a prayer flag, too - purchased from a Tibetan shop. My husband is very drawn to them. Thank you for sharing your insights and thoughts about them.