Floating Prayers

✏️ Day 23 – Floating Prayers
 (Myanmar)

My pencil hummed today—
a quiet, golden tune.
When I looked down,
the page had turned into a lake of light.

Pagodas began to rise,
their tops glinting like sunrise caught in gold.
The pencil moved slowly,
almost reverently,
drawing each curve as if it were a bow to the sky.

Then came a secret from its whisper:
the Shwedagon Pagoda
is said to hold eight strands of Buddha’s hair.
Eight threads of peace,
woven into the city’s breath.
I drew them as floating prayers,
tiny, weightless, glowing softly above the spires.

When I signed the page,
the gold shimmered faintly,
though I had used no color.
The pencil just winked—
some light, it said,
comes from the heart, not the lead.

✨ If your pencil could draw light, what shape would peace take?
2

River of Smiles

✏️ Day 22 – River of Smiles
 (Laos)

The pencil was unusually calm today.
It didn’t rush.
It just glided—like the Mekong itself.

Slow lines became a river,
soft curves became boats,
and the air on my page felt warm and sleepy.
Vientiane unfolded gently—
temples peeking through palm trees,
and saffron-robed monks walking in single file,
their silence louder than bells.

Then my pencil paused,
and whispered something I never knew:
Laos is the “Land of a Million Elephants.”
I smiled and added one—
a tiny one, balancing on a cloud,
its trunk curling like a prayer.

When I signed my name,
the river shimmered back,
as if it too was smiling.
Maybe peace has a sound after all—
the quiet scratch of a pencil across a dreaming page.

✨ If your pencil floated down a river, what would it bring back?
1

Lantern Lanes

✏️ Day 21 – Lantern Lanes
 (Vietnam)

My pencil woke up glowing today.
“Let’s chase the light,” it said.
So I followed—
and found myself in Hanoi.

The page filled with lanterns,
red, gold, and jade,
floating like tiny suns over the street.
The pencil danced between them,
drawing ribbons of laughter and wind.

Then it paused to whisper a secret:
In Hanoi’s Old Quarter,
there’s a train that runs so close to the houses
you could almost reach out and touch it.
I drew that too—
a train brushing past laundry lines,
its whistle blending with dinner smells and chatter.

By the time I signed the page,
the lanterns had spilled off the paper,
glowing softly on my desk.
The pencil just smiled,
as if it had borrowed a bit of Hanoi’s heart.

✨ If your pencil could follow the light, where would it lead you tonight?
1