Anonymous Blue Crochet Contribution for Mandalas for Marinke

Here is the next of the beautiful, inspiring, special contributions coming in to the #MandalasForMarinke remembrance project. I am grateful for each and every amazing contribution. You are invited to join; learn more here.

Beautiful Crochet Mandala

This pretty crochet mandala is made using a variety of different shades of blue. There is a mixture of dark blue and light blue, with a few shades that are teal or blue-green. I love the way it’s worked in the same color family and yet looks very colorful because of the different shades in the work.

Meet the Maker

This beautiful crochet mandala was contributed anonymously, which, as I mentioned previously, is totally okay for this project. I believe that everyone should be able to contribute in the way that is right for him or her at this given time and I’m happy to have the contribution! It includes a lovely little tag that says, “For Wink, Now a star in the sky and our hearts“.

Update: The maker has become more open about her situation and chosen to share about herself in the comments below. HUGS.

Words by Wink

On March 9, 2012, Wink shared her excitement over having created a scrappy notebook filled with inspiration.

“I just let my mind go wild! What followed was a 3-day insanely creative process of picking out images and embellishing them with buttons & ribbons, and sewing everything together on the fabric to create the most awesome scrappy book EVUR!”

She added:

“The thing I like best about my scrappy journal is that it’s 100% recycled! I made it with things I already had, I didn’t buy a single item for this. I think if we all look around our crafty spaces we can find incredibly inspiring things, just waiting for us to do something with them!”

About Depression

One purpose of this project is to raise awareness about depression so each post will end with some facts, thoughts or quotes about depression, suicide and/or mental health. Earlier today I shared some of the diagnostic criteria for major depression. I wanted to point out that there is a difference between major depression and grief.

Grief, which can come after the loss of a person but also after the loss of a job, relationship, pet, home, etc., is a normal part of the process of living, painful though it may be. Some of the major differences between grief and major depression are:

• The primary feeling in grief is a feeling of loss and / or emptiness. In depression, it’s lack of interest and a feeling of, well, depression.
• Sadness in grief tends to come in waves, with ups and downs, and gradually gets better with time. Depression is persistent. Feelings of true happiness typically occur even while grieving but often aren’t present during depression.
• Grief is associated with a specific loss. In depression, the mood doesn’t typically feel related to any one specific thing or event.
•  During grief, we typically think a lot about our loved one. During depression, we often are thinking about ourselves.
• Our personal self-esteem typically isn’t affected while grieving. In depression, we usually experience low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness.
• There may be a desire to die when grieving but this is usually a desire to be with the dead person. In contrast, thoughts of dying in depression may be suicidal or a desire to end our own pain.

It’s important to note that the normal grieving process can become major depression. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including an unfinished grieving process.

All contributions to Mandalas for Marinke are welcome and will help raise awareness about depression while honoring her work in the same way that this great contribution has done today. Details to join here.