{"id":1374,"date":"2016-11-14T07:13:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T12:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/?p=1374"},"modified":"2016-11-14T15:39:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T20:39:42","slug":"making-mandalas-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/making-mandalas-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Mandalas for Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"
After the election, stunned friends flew to their therapists. The TV flashed scenes of protests across the country. People all over the world were in various stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I was numb, my mind too scattered with other problems: pipes leaked under my driveway, contaminating the water system. The well pump was close to burnout. My mother\u2019s dieffenbachia plant was in trauma. And my closet shelf, once securely screwed to the wall, had torn away and collapsed under the weight of my belongings. It felt like everything was falling apart or failing. So when a friend phoned inviting me to walk in the woods, I said, \u201cYes, let\u2019s go right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be slow,\u201d my friend warned. \u201cI want to gather some things along the way to make a mandala.\u201d She mentioned something about needing to \u201cright the world.\u201d Maybe she said \u201cfor healing\u201d and \u201cto calm spirits.\u201d It didn\u2019t matter what she said. It resonated. And I was desperate to escape.<\/p>\n
In the woods, on the way to locating the creek that would be blessed with our \u201cround symbol representing the universe in a search for completeness and self-unity,\u201d my friend and I collected leaves, ferns, twigs, small patches of moss, and a single red berry. \n\u201cWe need seeds for the mandala,\u201d she said, something about \u201cplanting change and growth.\u201d My previous mandala-making was mostly out of the peas and potatoes on my dinner-plate. So I kept quiet and my friend showed me how to string red and yellow leaves together, threading their stems through their papery skins. She arranged the elements while I photographed leaf veins that resembled tiny trees. She planted a feather in the middle of the masterpiece when it became apparent that I\u2019d stepped on the berry.<\/p>\n
Finally my friend was satisfied. She\u2019d done her part to foster peace in the world. So we left the woods and went to my house where she screwed the shelf back into the wall and rescued the dieffenbachia plant. Maybe she said a prayer over the driveway\u2019s leaky pipes and contaminated water too. I don\u2019t know. But things felt a bit lighter, restored to order.<\/p>\n
The next day it rained. The wind was blowing the trees bare. Unsettled as the weather, I hovered over the computer with the TV on for company. And, thinking of seeds and leaves with tiny trees reaching out to the world, I photo-shopped a mandala of my own. For \u201cself-unity.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Do you have any rituals or remedies for coping with things falling apart and failing? For things changing?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the election, stunned friends flew to their therapists. The TV flashed scenes of protests across the country. People all over the world were in various stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I was numb, my mind too scattered with other problems: pipes leaked under my driveway, contaminating the water system. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[702],"tags":[628,224,1015,1019,1021,1022,1020,1017,1016,1018],"class_list":["post-1374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-702","tag-creating-rituals","tag-depression","tag-election-results","tag-everything-falling-apart","tag-making-mandalas","tag-making-mandalas-for-healing","tag-mandalas","tag-numb-to-the-world","tag-stages-of-grief","tag-walking-in-woods"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
![\"Robin](\"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/RightWorldPost-1024x1016.jpg\" "\\"Making")
After the election, stunned friends flew to their therapists. The TV flashed scenes of protests across the country. People all over the world were in various stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I was numb, my mind too scattered with other problems: pipes leaked under my driveway, contaminating the water system. The well pump was close to burnout. My mother\u2019s dieffenbachia plant was in trauma. And my closet shelf, once securely screwed to the wall, had torn away and collapsed under the weight of my belongings. It felt like everything was falling apart or failing. So when a friend phoned inviting me to walk in the woods, I said, \u201cYes, let\u2019s go right now.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Robin](\"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/LizMandalaFB-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Making")
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