Sunday, March 8, 2015

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.



Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for dedicating space and time for teachers and teachers of literacy to come together to share ideas, practice and life experience.

14 comments:

  1. I'm in the midst of writing units of study for my students and one of these was graphic art. One of his questions was about the effect of color. I'll send this article to him, Deborah. What a lovely morning that sounds like, and your poem touches me most for the questions. When we can sit and just have a quiet moment, like your coloring the mandelas, the questions and contemplation is freed, isn't it? I love the 3rd stanza.

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  2. What a lovely slice! I love the mandalas, just looking at them calms me. I really can see how coloring calms and is a way of meditating!

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  3. My cousin creates mandalas. I will forward the Huffington article to her. Thank you for sharing. I love your poetry.

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  4. I love both your poem and the sharing of the article about mandalas! Thank you. It is truly amazing how they quiet the mind and bring people into a state of presence...

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  5. Your mandalas are beautiful. Several times I have asked my students to color what they feel before they write about it. At first they don't get it, but as the time of moving the cray pas on paper increases, the feelings emerge. The poems that come after are beautiful, much like yours.

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  6. Coloring was always something I enjoyed as a child. I never thought of it as soothing, but now I realize it was. What a lovely poem with deep questions to reflect on.

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  7. I saw that article too. I love how coloring mandalas figured into your retreat. Drawing and coloring often keeps me focused and relaxed -- I draw sermons in church and notes at conferences. Too often we push such activities aside in school thinking they are icing or extras or even unimportant. The brain needs the time; that's what I believe.

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  8. I haven't read that article yet - I have it saved to read soon. .. .but I love coloring. Yesterday I sat down with my kids to color - and realized it had been way too long since we had done that. :-)

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  9. I haven't read that article yet - I have it saved to read soon. .. .but I love coloring. Yesterday I sat down with my kids to color - and realized it had been way too long since we had done that. :-)

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  10. When my daughter and her friends were troubled over the death of a classmate, they gathered together every night. I gave them paper and crayons one night and went to bed. I was amazed the next day to see the table covered with their art work. It gave them something to do while they grieved.

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  11. Love love love this Deb~ thanks for sharing your gifts of insight and space :)

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  12. Love love love this Deb~ thanks for sharing your gifts of insight and space :)

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