When I came back for the heavy wood dressing table with its curly feet and brass drawer pulls it was gone. Dumpster diver’s number-one rule: get while the gettin’s good.

The only furniture left for the taking on the curb next to a full dumpster (gutted student rentals aren’t unusual around this time of year in our old college town) was a tatty oversized orange velvet-upholstered lounge chair. Just looking at it made me itch. But draped along the headrest, a Tibetan flag. It wasn’t stained or smelly. I didn’t know that until I looked at it later.

The feeling to give it a good home was contagious.

Sometimes you just know what you need. What belongs with you.

Seeker and student, I study, memorize and perform ritual as part of my sadhna, which simply put is a daily practice that clears and calms me, connects me to the divine and sends peace out into the spaces around me. I pre-pave each with joyful service. I love learning about spiritual and cultural practices. Really digging into a mudra or prayer. But sometimes it’s freeing to not overthink. To go on instinct. On faith. To just grab your flag and let it fly.

I’m not entirely out of the Tibetan loop. I’ve watched several documentaries about the Dali Lama and learned about the Panchen Lama. Plenty of prayer flags and wheels in that country. And several years ago a Yoga teacher “called the wind horse“at the beginning of a class. With no warning she contorted her face, bugged out her eyes and screamed. It was startling and kooky, even to a woo-woo aficionado like me. She only smiled mysteriously when I asked her what it meant. I’ve been intrigued by the wind horse ever since.

 This is the third prayer flag that’s come to me this year. Long may large, medium and small wave, and may all who walk under them or feel the breeze that sends them aloft be well and happy.