“Flow”
THE MANDALA PROJECT - How it came to life
If you know someone whose day would be brightened by this Mandala, please pass it along! Even more magical, with a love note from you!
The Mandala Project: #55
There’s an idea that flow is what we experience when life is moving along with ease, things are going our way and we have a sense of everything working out.
But when you’re truly in flow, you don’t need anything to work out. You’re in a state of alignment and connection with the bigger energies circulating around you. There’s spaciousness and flexibility in your being, and a continued returning to trust in flow as life is shifting and changing.
Flow is what you feel when you’re holding a stable, steady centre while the currents of the universe are swirling around you with infinite possibilities of disruption.
This Mandala was a powerful teacher of how to hold that centre by not losing sight of what’s important.
For starters it drew me to this crazy location to build it. Didn’t really know what I was in for until I was up to my armpits in it (a hallmark of any worthy undertaking). I was struck by an idea to make a little altar of stones and wood that I could set the red leaf on, but it wasn’t working—the strong currents of moving water kept undoing what I was doing, and one by one the pieces would spin out of position and get carried off downstream.
I was getting increasingly frustrated as how-I-wanted-it-to-be was becoming an impossible quest.
But I was committed to the mission, and slowly but surely resistance turned into something wiser: perseverance.
Control became curiosity and magic began to happen. I let go of needing it to be any way and just kept coming up with creative new ways to work with what life was offering up.
And I got that fucker built.
What are you holding on to as if it belongs to you—and what might be created if you were willing to let it all go, to keep releasing each beautiful and unique treasure back in to the moving aliveness it came from before it was yours?
“Fracturing” - The Mandala Project: #54
In the fragments of what we wish was unbreakable, we might begin to see the ways that its very solidness needs to fracture to support us in becoming the next thing we’re meant to be.
“Dog Magic” - The Mandala Project: #106
When the door’s open, there’s just no stopping magic from inviting itself on in.
“Gathering” - The Mandala Project: #53
We are born of something bigger and more ancient than whatever form we’re taking in this specific moment. We are fluid, unique expressions engaged in a conversation with the creative power of life rearranging itself.
“Connected” - The Mandala Project: #52
There is a deep relationship and conversation between all things. Essential information is being passed through us and between us, love weaving its way along never-ending currents of aliveness.
“Co-Conspirator” - The Mandala Project: #51
More than any that had come before, this mandala revealed the magic that is activated when we show up for the call.
"Charmed" - The Mandala Project: #50
The flirtation of the natural world is ever-present, enticing you to fall irrevocably under its spell and awaken more deeply to the wonder of being alive.
"Nesting" - The Mandala Project: #49
Nesting is an intimate act of self-care, a tangible manifestation of our deep-seated need for safety, comfort and a place in this vast world we can call our own.
"Threshold" - The Mandala Project: #48
Sacred thresholds are powerful gateways that connect the ordinary to the extraordinary.
"Continuum" - The Mandala Project: #47
Life—home in the truest sense of the word—is not a stationary place. It is infinitely rearranging itself in relationship with what’s come before, and what is emerging now.
"Enchantment" - The Mandala Project: #46
To enter into enchantment is to allow the spell of mystery to ignite your imagination and to follow the allure of its mesmerizing call.
"Shapeshifter" - The Mandala Project: #45
It’s fascinating what magic emerges when we trust that we inhabit a world where everything is connected, where change and transformation are the only constants, and where the adventure is to keep tuning in to the rhythm and movement of mystery.
"The Magician" - The Mandala Project: #44
You discover treasure when you open to perceive the glimmers of magic all around you, but when you’re willing to deeply enliven it with the wonder of your imagination then its warmth truly finds home in your being.
"Storm Watch" - The Mandala Project: #43
Storms are big, sometimes epically so. But while they seem to disrupt our rhythm and flow, that the very nature of them is vibrant aliveness helps instill trust that the force of them is a necessary, essential part of our lives.
"Grasshopper Divination”
When you hold that which is ‘dead’ with the full presence of your aliveness it lives on, collaborating and co-creating with the Cosmos in new and surprising ways.
"Oracle" - The Mandala Project: #42
Divine communication is always in the space and when we open to perceive it, we are gifted with the wisdom of shimmering things.
"Earth Elder" - The Mandala Project: #41
Grief is becoming intimate with the immovable truth that we’re not meant to hold on to or possess that which we love.
"Descent Into Grief" - The Mandala Project: #97
What if, instead of seeking to transcend pain, we choose to dive deeper, to explore the bigger truths that live beneath the surface of it?
"Becoming" - The Mandala Project: #40
Instead of the personality self you know so well, what’s possible when you imagine you’re in a process of becoming something new all the time?
The Mandala Project: #39
When you’re not on the lookout for joy, life can feel like one hard little thing after another—but when you orient to wonder, you can always find evidence of good cheer working its charm in the world.
The Mandala Project: #38
What serious magic is possible when you summon your unique super power and direct it into the world?
The Mandala Project: #37
Offering our unique ‘something’ to the world in the way that only we can might very well be our best and most essential contribution to the tending of the Universe.
The Mandala Project: #35
In the burning down of old ideas and identities, this Mandala reminds me that we are held and guided by beings who swim alongside us in times of transition, showing us how to move with ease through the currents of liminal space.
The Mandala Project: #34
Despite our best efforts to domesticate our lives and ourselves, our true nature is not meant to be confined or tamed.
The Mandala Project: #33
Yes to meeting fear head on. Yes to allies, to courage, to trust. And yes to the Power of Love.
The Mandala Project: #32
Each element that came together for this Mandala brought its own unique contribution, all offering a bow of recognition and respect for the shimmering mystery that is Raven.
The Mandala Project: #31
This Mandala revealed that we’re co-creating with a force that’s deeply engaged and powerfully collaborative. The invitation is to keep pulling on the thread and following where it's leading.
The Mandala Project: #30
As we create with the things that come into our lives, what if the magic that’s possible depends on whether our relationship is transactional or sacred?
The Mandala Project: #29
Life continually invites you to return to centre, and to be fluid and playful as it keeps shifting and evolving under your feet.
“Flow” - The Mandala Project: #55
Flow is what you feel when you’re holding a stable, steady centre while the currents of the universe are swirling around you with infinite possibilities of disruption.