creating a mandala
During my morning ritual of sitting outside with a cuppa, I was drawn to the sound of the birds coming from the gigantic gum tree in near me.
These tiny little gum tree flowers were gracefully floating through the air, drifting into their final resting position…
“sometimes the best thing to do is to let go of plans and flow with what is being presented to you”
The birds were having such a wonderful time up in the gum tree, then I noticed what I thought was a birds feather gracefully floating through the air and landing on the grass near me. I got up from where I was sitting to go and find the feather when I realised that it was a tiny flower from the gum tree above. The birds were having a feast on the flowers and some of them were dropping to the ground.
When I looked closer at the grass I noticed that there were a lot of tiny gum flowers all over the grass. I have lived here for 7 years and I have never noticed this before. They were so tiny and delicate it was difficult to see them at first and it would be very easy for them to go unnoticed and trodden on.
I started to pick up a few up and place them in my hand. They were perfect, such an amazing little creation in the palm of my hand each one uniquely different. I had no intention that morning of creating anything, I was merely sitting enjoying my morning cuppa before I moved onto the list of chores that I had planned for the day.
I have some lovely, soft moss on my path which seemed like the best place to put these delicate little flowers…
Letting go of any outcome and just placing the flowers in a way that felt right it started creating itself. There were so many of these tiny flowers on the dewy morning grass that the circles got bigger and bigger after I ran out of flowers I finished off with gum leaves around the outside, the colours varying from red to brown to green and then a couple of tiny gum nuts in the centre.
Then I sat back and asked the question; “what does this represent to me, what gift am i to take away from this creation this morning, what lesson am i to learn from this”?
The answer that I received was; that this mandala and everything that it was made from came from the gum tree. And all of the elements are so varied, yet they were from just one living organism. The change, the renewal, the delicate, the varying colours of life and death.
I have all of these elements inside of me. At every moment there is something different, I am forever changing, i have cells that are continually renewing themselves then dying. the complex system that we call the body has repeating patterns of cells moving within ourselves. I have emotions that fall away, that change, the cranky, crackly, red angry ones, like the drying red leaves on the ground. then the soft delicate emotions of love like the perfect and pretty flowers, full of perfume and beauty.
I learnt that it isn’t to make any emotion wrong, that they all move through me, if I allow them to and to honour them and the journey that I am on.
I thanked the birds and the tree for showing me this today.
The mandala will sit and eventually be blown away when the time is right. It’s so good to let go…
Perhaps you can create a mandala in nature:
sit and see what comes into your space
collect some things that you are drawn to
don’t overthink the process, just place things down and enjoy the journey of creating
know when it’s time to stop and don’t judge yourself about the outcome
ask yourself the question of what you are to learn or take away from the creation once you have finished it and sit with this until the answer comes
then released it …
