Ashes

 

When I see those Stone Prayers disturbed

I can’t help but feel the way I do

Like someone has dug up a loved one’s grave

Like someone has vandalized a church or a temple,

Like someone has opened and dumped the ashes

To see if there’s “anything of value”

 Inside that fancy urn,

 Inside that plain wooden box

 

 Sometimes the words fall on deaf ears, blind eyes

And I don’t know why I even try sometimes…

And then I hear a friend's voice saying: 

"Please do whatever you can to discourage any touching of stone prayers, especially by persons who have not smudged, brought a gift, said the right words and keeps their mind still. 

To me, these are not things but more like persons,

and I think preserving the peace of spirits is more important

than anything we can learn from studying them or anything else.

In the end, I don't see the point of anything

if we lose the spirits and the path to them.

 Honestly, I was horrified when I saw someone strip away

around what they thought was a stone prayer." 

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2024/01/asking-for-favor.html