July is Journaling Month: #14 Mandala Day

 

One of my favorite daydreamy activities

 

I have been drawing mandalas in my journal since I was a teenager. I always wondered why the act of putting a dot or a diamond or a flower or some small shape in the center of a piece of paper and then letting designs flow out from that center was such a comfort, but I think there is something satisfying about how a simple shape can become a pattern if it’s repeated, and that there’s something about patterns that seems more and more important and human to me as time goes on. Of course mandalas have been made as objects of contemplation for thousands of years. They are part of the Buddhist tradition, the Christian tradition (as in rose windows, haloes, etc.) I actually think the secret of the power of mandalas is that that putting that confident little dot in the center is like poking a hole into another world,a world where creativity can come through, pattern by tiny pattern, until it weaves a hole. Here are a few examples.