One of the challenges with creativity is finding the sweet spot between ‘this is pretty damn good’ and chasing down perfect. I often go well past the line before I discover where it is.

“Beauty Calls” - The Mandala Project: #9

Bill Plotkin believes there is a deep (and mostly unmet) longing in all of us for a romance between our ego and our soul, and that cultivating that relationship is how we connect with and embody our purpose in life.

Engaging with the natural world through this practice of making mandalas feels like a facet of that love affair emerging.

It’s a dance between devotion and obsession. Sometimes I’m a creator, creating art—and others I’m more like an addict chasing down a fix.

Still getting clear where exactly that line is.

This morning was one of the most magical moments of the project, and one of the most charming moments of my life. And it almost didn’t happen.

Part of the wonder of mandala-making is that you never know what you’ll be inspired to pick up as you’re walking.

When I open my heart to perceive what wants to capture my attention, to hear what’s calling, I get that I am not the sole engineer and architect of these glimmers of mystery, I’m in a collaborative dialogue with the creative field.

Something keeps calling the next Mandala into being; a mysterious, emergent something that’s revealing itself in the making and sharing of them. It feels like learning a secret code to decipher messages from the natural world.

It’s one thing to know you’re caught in the energy of struggle, and a whole other deal to stop bucking against it.

We’re more in charge of our state than we believe, but first we have to understand why our sense of well-being is constantly shifting and changing.

Magic isn’t bound by the physical world, and it won’t be limited to one plane. It just keeps inviting us to open to wider perceptions and greater possibilities.