Return to Earth: Spirit and Memory
An exhibition curated by Carol Blank

Nancy Wells

For me, the making of prayer sticks helps me focus my energy on those aspects of my life that need loving attention. I learned to make prayer sticks while working with the Bear Tribe when Sun Bear walked this earth. From Grandfather Albert, a Mic Mac Elder from Canada, I became more conscious of how alive all of nature is. The trees, rocks, animals, birds, fish, and human beings are all our teachers. In order to hear what they are saying we just have to open our hearts.

While walking along a path in the woods or down a street in Jersey City, a fallen branch has called for me to notice it, to share the special gift of its being. Sometimes it takes me only a minute, sometimes months, or even years to grasp why I need to work with a particular stick. I have made prayer sticks to help me honor my feelings, to be more grounded on the earth, to listen to and remember my dreams, to trust again, and to live and share myself fully and generously with the world. Although each of my prayer sticks is very personal to me, I feel that they are meant to be here, because it is my time for sharing.

Every color of yarn, every object attached to the prayer stick contains the energy of the prayer. Making prayer sticks is a way of asking the Great Spirit to help up stay in touch with our essential being so that we can blossom and radiate as naturally and as wildly as the dandelion. As the seed contains the tree, so do each of us contain all of our infinite possibilities. Making prayer sticks is a way to access what is already there, though sometimes mysteriously hidden from our immediate awareness.

Mixed media prayer stick