The Mixing of Science and Spirit

Last weekend I helped facilitate a retreat.  During the morning, as we gathered after breakfast, we spent time coloring mandalas as a way to quietly and meditatively enter into the morning.  For several women, for different reasons, a gem taken away was that of mandala coloring.

You can imagine my surprise yesterday morning, as I browsed through my morning mail and Facebook messages to run across an article from the Huffington Post about the scientific effects of coloring on stress relief.    I so love when the scientific and the spiritual intermingle.  Here is the science.  And below is the spiritual.

My Mandala Meditation

Coloring my mandala

I ease into my day,

meditating only on

color and space

while I listen

to the scratch, scratch, scratch

of color against paper.

My mandala meditation

Reveals me.

Do I keep white space?

Do I color in crayon hues of pastel

or use markers rich and deep?

Do I color in the lines—

living a life of musts

and obligation while

longing to step out

of the lines into possibility?

Or is my lesson

the value of lines—

my life rich with risk

yet lacking the peace

of boundaries?

I never gave my children

coloring books.

My values told me no.

Yet here I see judgment

of right and wrong.

And in doing what I

thought was wrong,

I am peaceful.

This is prayer.

Mandala meditation

Coloring into my space.

  

                                           ...A slice mandala.

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