It has been about thirty summers since my wife Karen and I boarded
a gondola in Vail, Colorado with our young daughter. We had crossed the continental divide the day
before and stopped by a high-country meadow where we photographed her sitting
on a fallen log amid colorful alpine flowers in a hand-crafted sweater with a
goose neck extending down the sleeve.
This morning I, my daughter, son-in-law and grandson of almost
two years boarded another gondola to the top of Vail Mountain in the Rockies. My wife who succumbed to breast cancer
exactly ten years ago had saved that goose sweater for a future grandchild and
he was wearing it this morning. We
walked a looping trail in anticipation of duplicating the image taken those thirty
years ago in Colorado at the top of the world.
The morning’s atmosphere was a perfect sunlit temperature in
the low seventies with gentle cool breezes passing over the mountain. As we completed our mission and strolled back
to the hiking trail, small colorful flags strung between two pine trees caught
my attention. Further investigation revealed
traditional Tibetan Prayer Flags gently waving in the breeze.
My son-in-law was aware of their significance, being placed
where one desires to bring harmony to the surroundings. Tibetans believe that as the flags are blown
by the wind, prayers and mantras on them will spread goodwill and compassion
into all pervading space. Even the
colors of the flags have symbolic meaning for this harmony and the earth’s
elements such as blue for peace and sky, yellow for knowledge and earth, white
for purification and air, green for prosperity and water, and red for compassion
and fire.
As the wind blows through the flags and moves them, the
vibration of the prayers and the spiritual intention permeates the area. The wind slicing through pine needles and
whistling around the mountain always moves my soul to the consciousness of a
divine creator. Perhaps the colorful
flags waving for our attention in this special place today may have been acknowledging
that the sweater was symbolic of our combined destinies and an indication that we
were walking the right path. And they were
reminding us that we were not alone in this sacred place that reaches to the
heavens.
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