“Vivian”

“At any given point in time I can be anyone I please.
I choose me”

For this mandala design, I created two full-color versions using color pencils

In 1999, while at the shore in Jensen Beach, Florida, I was thinking of my friend, Vivian, and the image of this mandala came to mind. I drew the outline right there on the beach.

In Version 1 I saw a spiral pattern and alternated red and blue to make it stand out. I used color pencils for this piece.

In Version 2, I created it for my mother-in-law giving all the inner sections the same pink colors, which changes the whole look of the mandala design. I used color pencils for this piece.

The Message

From the moment of our birth, we start taking on labels as ways to describe and/or define us. With our first breath, we become human, a baby. We are a boy/son/grandson or we are a girl/daughter/grand-daughter. And if other siblings exist, we become a brother or a sister. We take on the labels and associations of our maternal and paternal families, the heritages of our families, the culture of the neighborhood, city, state, and country where we are raised.

That’s a lot for one little baby to take on with only its first breath.

In and of themselves, these labels have little meaning…they are just mere words. However within the framework of our childhood environment those around us mold and shape us by their interpretations of these labels. Who are we as babies to question them? We are in the hands of well-intentioned adults wanting only what’s best for us.

Until we become conscious of these labels and their meanings within the context of our own lives, we tend to live in a default mode. If we are “this” then we must behave like “this”. If we are “this” then we must do “this.” If we are “this” then we must think like “this.”

When we live in this default mode we are more likely to live our lives as others would want us to live with a tendency to lose our true selves in the process.

The movie “Runaway Bride” gives a wonderful example of this. Julia Roberts’ character eventually learns that as she was with each of her previous fiances she would like her eggs prepared the same way each of them like their eggs. If one liked them scrambled, she liked them scrambled. If one like them as white omelets…she liked them as white omelets.

To truly find out how she likes her eggs cooked, she made up every possible egg recipe and then proceeded to eat each one until she figured out how SHE liked HER eggs.

The point of this mandala is to remind us to live our own authentic life by breaking away from our default mode; to consciously remember that we control who we are and how we wish to define ourselves.

And if you have to break a few eggs in the process…so be it.

Namaste

FYI…

• both original “Vivian” mandalas have been sold
•  The “Vivian” mandala to color can by found in the Contemplation Mandala Coloring Book

joyfully, Maureen
The Mandala Lady