Mandala Day - Opening to What is Flowering...

This past weekend I taught a Mandala Workshop at the lovely Journey Center in Santa Rosa.  

 This was the first workshop I facilitated, without my dear  friend and partner in the Mandala Workshop Process, Patricia Waters, who passed away in February.

 Although I have taught many mandala workshops without her over the years, our shared teaching of this process for over 20 years, was a delight and something I was very comfortable with.

 I was worried before this workshop that I would be emotional and felt as though it was a day I had to get through, kind of like getting back on a horse after you fall. But,...

 it turned out to be a wonderfully healing day for me and for everyone who attended.  I was very blessed to have several dear friends participate, who also were close to Patricia, so I felt very held by them.  But more than that, I felt held by my friend Patricia and Judith as well.  Judith Cornell, created this deep work, and  was my teacher in the Mandala Process.

 I felt support on many levels as I continued to share this work with others.

 These photos show a bit of the days process and each person's work, with some exploring  this healing art process for the first time

 I came away, recommitted to continuing to doing and sharing this approach in the future.

 It is always so satisfying to have people participate who feel they can't draw at all and leave feeling transformed by this gentle work.

 We worked surrounded by flowers and each person have a personal vase of flowers that they picked for themselves.

                               Opening to what was flowering in our lives at the moment,

                    and  to  what we wanted to come through more clearly in our personal gardens,

                                                  the drawings emerged and developed,

                                        like mystical flowers from the  procreative darkness of the paper

                                          Each unique mandala unfolding like a flower,

                                          like we unfold from the center  of our being .

                                                                 out in our lives

                                                I am grateful to have this opportunity

                                               to express the inner sacred through art

                                                              with others....

Each of these mandala's have a story to tell, just as the process was an inner journey for each person as well.

                           But best of all    I have  a  new mandala to work on and that always makes me happy.

                                       and also helps to ground and center me in my daily life.

                             What a blessing, I am so lucky to be able to be with others

                                                         and share this work as

                                                             my right livelihood..

         I am now considering offering a Second Sunday of the Month - Mandala Morning at my studio...

 Get in touch if you are drawn to learn this work.  I will post more about it another time.

                                                 Until next time  Namaste'......Caterina