To Inspire, Transform & Heal

Linda Wiggen Kraft
Creativity for the Soul

100 Days for Mandalas – The Gifts of Our Soul -Session 5 – Week 5

When faced  with a decision

 

mandala-journey-boat-child-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

 

Choose the path that feeds your soul.

  Dorothy Mendoza Row

This is week five of 100 Days for Mandalas. The theme for the last two weeks has been “JOURNEY”.  And boy what a journey this mandala took me to. Recently  I was brought back to feeling the same feelings I often had as a child. Kind of like when you go home for Thanksgiving and no matter how accomplished, aware, or old you are,  you become the five,  ten, or fifteen year old of your former self.

mandala-journey-boat-child-vellum-and-mandala-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

All those feeling came up.  I was the child alone, adrift at sea in the ocean of feelings that I lived in for a lot of my childhood years.  The feelings all came pouring in:  loneliness , homesick for somewhere in my heart that I didn’t even know where or what, and at times an outsider.  I wasn’t depressed, far from it.  My family was loving.  I had friends.  But I felt somehow different from everyone else.

mandala-journey-child-boat-vellum-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

But instead of trying to push these feelings away, I embraced them. I felt them and let them guide me to a place of peace.

I took a photo of me as a child smelling tulips and put her in a boat adrift and alone in the mandala (first one shown).  I surrounded her in the sacred circle and let her be safe there.  I  put an overlay of vellum on top and added the waves of life’s experiences, some smooth and some rough. Always she was protected within the circle.

 

 

mandala-journey-boat-child-words-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

I let the feelings come out in words.  First a page titled “The Journey”, and another titled “The People”.  I wrote the good and the bad. By creating the girl adrift, letting words be expressed, honoring my family;  I came to a place, where I saw that those feelings guided me to seek what my soul was searching for.

mandala-journey-boat-child-family-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

The discomfort brought me a realization that loneliness taught me to listen to my heart and  learn to love solitude.  Time alone in the woods at my Grandparent’s farm, let me become friends with nature. The homesickness brought me to find a spiritual center. Being an outsider gave me strength to forge a path that is mine alone.

mandala-journey-boat-child-archetype-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

My discomfort with those feelings of childhood turned to a feeling of gratitude. Perhaps there was an archetype of my journey. I found an “Explorer Archetype” explanation.

I felt also that the love of my family was always there, even now as my parents are gone. I copied the photo of the upside down rainbow that appeared at the farm the day after my Mother died. This is  where my mother was born at and lived at until leaving home.  My Aunt and Uncle live there now and saw this rainbow.  A sign from the heavens.

mandala-journey-child-boat-cover-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

 

THEME FOR SESSION FIVE – The  theme during the next three  weeks is “JOURNEY”.

JOURNEY – of discovering  the gifts of our Soul

POEMS & QUOTES – Please read these words in bold type by  Dorothy Mendoza Row and let it be an inspiration.

MEDITATION – The guided meditation centers and quiets.  Enter into the sacred space of the mandala circle to let the colors, shapes and whatever you put into the mandala guide you. The marks you make are perfect, whatever they are.

Here is the meditation for JourneyMANDALA MEDITATION – JOURNEY

MANDALA PROMPT – How has your soul guided your journey.

WRITING PROMPT – An easy poem to create in an acrostic poem.  Take a word, any word or words from the poem, and write the letters one on top of each other, down a page. This week I used the word “JOURNEY” and wrote a poem/prayer  on vellum paper over the mandala:

J ust a child alone
O n a boat
U nlike any other
R ope me to the anchor
N et me to the mystery
E nlighten my soul
Y es to all of the journey

SHARING MANDALAS FROM AROUND THE WORLD – I am still enjoying the mandalas from Sofia in Portugal. These are more from her series 31 days for mandalas.

 

Mandalas-16-sofia-portugal-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

 

Mandalas-17-sofia-portugal-blog-creativity-for-the-soul

 

 

 

mandala-20-sofia-portugal-blog-creativity-for-the-soulSun of Autumn

mandala-17-sofia-portugal-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

mandalas-21-sofia-portugal-blog-creativity-for-the-soul

 

mandala-19-sofia-portugal-blog-creativity-for-the-soul-blog

Thank you Sofia for sharing.  More to come.

PLEASE JOIN THIS 100 DAY JOURNEY. Let these mandalas, prompts and meditation inspire your creativity.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR MANDALA CREATIVITY
Please share the mandalas and art journaling you create by sending an email with attachments of your art. Please use a high resolution – which can be a smart phone camera – with enough surroundings in the photo.  I can easily crop the image.  Please send to linda (at) creativityforthesoul.com.  Please use the @ sign and no spaces.

ENJOY & CREATE


Attend a class, workshop, or event

See Full Schedule

Follow Me