Prayer Sticks

Several weeks ago I was on Assateague Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Two days we walked the beach. On the second day the beach was littered with small cedar sticks. My friend and I began to pick up these sticks, each more beautiful than the last: worn smooth by water and sand. We collected as many as we could and placed them in the trunk of the car.

Weeks before I had been reading about Prayer sticks and looking at images of Prayer sticks from different cultures, mainly Native American and Buddhist. I began to imagine the making of my own prayer sticks using the materials around me from the ocean: Gull feathers, twine, sea urchins, an occasional shell. And what prayers will be said when I place them in the dirt?