I loaded some Pete Seeger onto my ipod over the weekend and being the compulsive person that I am, this is all I have been listening to on my frequent long walks and at work. The song that really stands out is "Oh Freedom". Inspired by this song, I drew a mandala last night with the same title. Freedom really is so hard to obtain, sustain and maintain and it is so elusive. I think this recording was done during the civil rights protests of the 60s. It seems that we have made a lot of progress, but is this progress also elusive and can we sustain it?
(Pictures to follow of this some of the this and some of the other mandalas that I have completed).
Our Assistant Minister taught a mandala class this winter. I have wanted to do some visual journaling for a long time; I bought a book which explains a metholology of visual journaling about 10 years ago intending to start. I assembled the art supplies, and bought the big blank sketch book, but it was always too daunting to start. Plus, the space that I had put aside for the journaling supplies, was always covered with fabric, yarn and little pieces of paper to be filed. I cleaned it off yesterday and did my first mandala in this space.
Having the circle as a boundary to contain my drawing helped get me over the hurdle of a blank sheet of paper. I am sure I was breaking all kinds of "mandala rules" as I sat in my sewing room last night, listening to Pete Seeger while I drew, but it worked for me.
When Rod and Bethany were headed to New Orleans for February vacation, we had sung "Oh Freedom" during the worship service and I was wandering around the sanctuary during a pre-New Orleans meeting humming it. It was purely freudian that I happened to be hung up on that song, in anticipation of having them gone for 5 days. It took our mininster pointing out that I was humming this tune for me to realize what I was doing. Those of you who know we well, know that 5 days of being alone is not something that I would normally be looking forward to, so why was I humming the song . . .
Oh Freedom!
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