Magic and Messages Everywhere
My husband and I took a recent trip to LA to see some art and said, “Let’s have a magical trip and look for magic and messages everywhere!”
When we arrived we parked next to a car with a Flower of Life symbol on its back window. Several of us in class have been incorporating this ancient symbol into our mandalas. Flowers of life have been found all over the ancient world, and no one is exactly sure how they got there. But, they are found everywhere, as we witnessed! Drunvalo Melchizedek says: It is the creation pattern. Spirit created us in this image. It is written in your body, in all your bodies. We are much more than we know. We have forgotten. It can give you a new awakening about yourself.
Our Mayan Connection
We were admiring this mandala tile floor at the entrance to the hotel restaurant when the assistant manager Leitica, who has Mayan ancestry, told us about the flower and vegetable mandalas created yearly in her town, Antigua, Guatemala. By the end of our stay we were invited to go to her home in Guatemala and learn how to make Guatemalan mandalas during Holy Week.
We Saw the Light
We visited the LA County Museum of Art and saw the James Turrell retrospective exhibit and immersed ourselves in rooms of light. He has worked with light and space for over 50 years, and his work is revolutionary. I love the story of how James’ grandmother took him as a boy to Quaker meetings and told him to focus on the light! This was an amazing and awe inspiring show.
The Beautiful Shrine
We took a most inspirational walk through the gardens of the Lake Shrine of Paramhansa Yogananda in Pacific Palisades where some of Ghandi’s ashes are interned. What a beautiful and peaceful place! One sign stopped me in my tracks. It said: Everything can wait except your search for God. In my mind’s eye I could see Yogananda standing there looking at me swathed in soft blue. I have not been able
to get his image out of my mind. He really spoke to me. I truly felt like he was visiting me from another realm.
Proof of Heaven
I picked this book up at the airport as we got ready to fly home. It’s about a neurologist who had a near death experience and it’s an amazing story. I love these stories and these kinds of books! I couldn’t put it down and I’m ready for the next one. From the author the message I heard deeply was this: We have lost touch with the deep mystery at the center of existence—our consciousness. I just couldn’t agree more.
The Dragonfly Visit
When we got home I needed to paint and make a soul connection. Because it had been so long since I had painted, with the end of the year and the busy holidays, I asked: “What is my next painting?” I immediately saw a dragonfly, and I knew it wanted to communicate something to me. It felt like it was from another dimension. Earlier I had been visited by a dragonfly in our studio and it had died at my feet by my drawing board. So I used the dragonfly in the painting, literally xeroxing and transferring it into the painting.
The Dragonfly Mandala’s Message
I really had fun with this painting. It’s done completely with mica watercolor paint except for the dragonfly in the middle and its wings which are painted with Stickles glitter glue. This was the message:
I am here,
and not so far from you.
I bring you a message
and that is,
Love who you are,
because you are
beautiful just that way,
the unique creature you have created.
That wasn’t the final message!
After hanging out with the dragonfly for days, yesterday it laid itself over my heart. It was so simple, loving and accepting. I heard: You are loved. It touched me deeply and I couldn’t hold back the tears. It was SO BEAUTIFUL!
