Sophia’s World   Music   Prayer Flags   Flags in Tibet   Poetry   Calligraphy

February 15, 2003 Dear Family and Friends, Sophia is now 24 months old, having struggled valiantly all of her life with Niemann-Pick Disease, Type A. Although our integrative medicine efforts have increased the quality of Sophia's life, she continues to decline from the disease and a cure has not yet been found.

At this time, we wish to celebrate Sophia’s life with a Prayer Flag Project. Our friend and neighbor in Greenmeadow, Robin Modlin, a textile and mosaic artist and mother of a special needs young adult, developed this project during her Chaplain residency at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford (more about prayer flags below). Together we have initiated the Prayer Flag Project as an expression of love and support for Sophia.

We invite you to participate in honoring Sophia by creating a prayer flag. If you live nearby, drop over to our house and create one with supplies donated by the Modlins. If you are out-of-town, make one and either hang it in your home or send it to Sophia for display throughout ours (contact us at flags@sophiasgarden.org for delivery instructions).

The collage flags are 15 1/2" L x 11" W with a 2 1/2" "waistband" at the top. They can be created out of fabric or paper and adorned with beads, fabric, leather, paper, photos, sequins, glitter, feathers, fabric, acrylic or oil paint, magic markers, found objects such as stones, leaves and flowers (see examples below). Let your imagination blossom and your heart soar as you make your wish for Sophia and her incredible journey.

Thank you with all of our hearts for the outpouring of kindness, generosity and love for our precious Sophia. We hope your lives are as enriched and deepened as ours from her gentle, soulful spirit.
With deepest gratitude,

Karen, Richard, Lauren and Sophia
 

About Prayer Flags
by Robin Modlin

Traditional Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags are inscribed with symbols, prayers and mantras. Tibetan Buddhists for centuries have planted these flags outside their homes and places of spiritual practice for the wind to carry their beneficent vibrations across the countryside. Prayer flags are saidto bring joy and prosperity to the flag planter and those in the vicinity. They invoke wisdom, compassion and strength while protecting against danger and negative influences.

Inspired by the traditional flags, Prayer Flags for healing provide a unique opportunity to participate in supporting patients and their families who are in crisis. The flags offer patients, family members and friends a way to express their heartfelt thoughts and prayers whatever spiritual or faith tradition they come from. Making a prayer flag for a patient allows the friend or family member a way to share feelings of love and support that may be hard to say any other way.

Hanging the flags in the environment of the patient offers a feeling of hope, love, support and a closenss to their community of caring. The beauty of the flags uplifts the heart of those who are emotionally struggling and gives those who see the display an opportunity to reflect upon their own feelings while gaining an understanding of how others are coping.

Using creativity when dealing with disease can help to unlock hidden emotions and provide a safe way to share one’s concerns. It gives a sense of doing something in situations where many times one feels helpless.You do not need to be a great artist to create a prayer flag. It only requires opening your heart and the willingness to share your love and care. The result is a personal statement of caring that can easily be received. Prayer flags are good medicine for everyone concerned