First prayer stick

Well, I arted up my first prayer stick. I ran across this concept on a website and thought it was so interesting. Asian cultures as well as Native American's have used prayer sticks for centuries. The asian sticks are very simple and clean looking with no ornamentation. They are strickly nice sticks with prayers written on them. The Native American sticks, however, are full of bits of symbolism and decoration. Even the type of wood used for the stick is for a purpose. I wonder why the American culture has never thought to utilize this tool!?! I LOVE the idea of taking a stick of some kind, writing your prayer on it, decorating it with symbolic colors, symbols, trinkets, etc... and then either giving it to the person whom you are praying for, putting them in the ground (as the Japanese do... like a garden of sticks which looks amazing) or even in bundles to remind us of those things we have given to God, etc... Anyway, I want to do some of these. And, since my sweet babysitter and friend, Rachel, is having some surgery tomorrow, which she is very nervous about, I made a prayer stick for her. There is a purpose for each thing I put on the piece as well as the colors used. I will give this to her today so she will have something she can carry in her hands when she goes to the hospital tomorrow ... she'll know she's been lifted in prayer and she can actually carry a symbol of that with her as a reminder. This stick has a bamboo base dyed with alcohol inks. It measures only about 4-5 inches. The center bead says "courage" and the feather is from the Native American tradition of adding a feather to the top of the stick to symbolize the prayer being carried to God. I love the visual... and the feather is pretty and feels great too! :)