Mandala - Circles of Spiritual Art

Recently I spend a week at the beach in St. Augustine, Florida. As a point of interest, St. Augustine is the oldest settlement in the United States, dating back to 1565. One particularly perfect day I was sitting on the beach under an umbrella watching my grandsons play in the ocean, riding the waves and squealing with delight. Life was good…..

 

From my right I saw a lady walking down the beach toward me. The beach was crowded and I would not have noticed this particular lady, except for the way she was dressed. She had on a long, flowing bright orange dress made of some kind of gauzy material. It seemed to float all around her in the warm breeze as she walked. And she had the cutest straw hat on, with a big red flower. Quite a pretty picture. As she got to me she stopped and said “it looks like your boys are having a wonderful time in the surf!” We started a pleasant conversation. I immediately noticed she was wearing the most unusual pendant I had ever seen! It was round, looked like it had some kind of yellow and red drawing painted on it, and was set in a silver ring. I asked the lady what it was and she said “its called a mandala, and its one-of-a-kind.” We finished our talk and she went on her way, floating down the shimmering beach in her orange dress like a vision.

 

Well, when I got home I immediately googled “mandala.” I discovered that the word “mandala” is from the Indian language of Sanskrit. It means “circle,” but its more complex that just a simple shape. It’s a spiritual, maybe even cosmic “circle with a center” diagram symbolizing wholeness, the structure of life itself. Look around, mandalas are really everywhere; in circles we call earth, sun, and moon, in flowers and rings in a tree truck, the curl of a snail, on and on. They are everywhere!

 

Anyway, after poking around the internet for a while I found an online handmade Israeli jewelry boutique with many of these beautiful mandala pendants. The owner of the store was very patient and friendly. The store has lots of other unusual and unique handmade Israeli jewelry, but I went straight for a one-of-a-kind mandala with a sweet little red butterfly floating around a sea of flowers and flickering lights in a circular pattern. And because it is one-of-a-kind, I won’t see another woman wearing this pendant, anywhere. It makes me feel special…..

 

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