These richly-colored crochet mandala has fabulous texture and a beautiful rose in the center. It comes to us from Wendy of Little Wendy Crochet.
As you can see above, she included a beautiful note that reads:
“Her beautiful color combinations were an inspiration. She was gifted with bringing joy to others with her lovely designs. She will be missed but not forgotten.”
This is a succinct version of what Wendy first published on her blog the day after Wink’s death was announced:
“The news came yesterday like an earthquake in crochet country.
With a lot of sadness the crochet community says goodbye to Marinke Slump (aka Wink) from a creative being.
Since yesterday the Internet is exploding with lovely last words and thoughts. This shows that she truly was a great inspiration to all of us and That she was truly loved in the community crochet.
Her creations were pleasing to the eye, a joy to make and loaded with happy colors. And I am absolutely sure That every crocheter out there, beginner or experienced, was inspired by her designs.
Some communities are organizing a memorial crochet-along to honor Wink as a person, a designer and a crocheter. I can only agree on that. So let’s all pick up our hooks for Marinke Slump and start hooking her designs. Let’s all show on blogger, twitter, instagram, facebook, … that we will remember her.”
Note: the true color of the flower is more like the red in the top picture than this purple in the above photo. I’m having trouble capturing good images in the weird light on these rainy days here! Either way, though, it’s a beautiful, beautiful piece.
Looking through recent news about depression in order to bring the awareness piece to this post, I’m noticing that there are a lot of articles recently about professionals who are struggling with depression and who get sicker because they don’t want to admit to what is going on.
Aaron E. Carroll wrote an article for The New York Times called Silence is the Enemy for Doctors Who Have Depression. He shares his own experience of depression in his early days as a doctor, and how it was only because of the support of others that he was able to get help, and he cites recent studies indicating that this is potentially a widespread problem in the medical community.
Kathryn Rubino writing for Above the Law shares that something similar is happening in the legal community and that law schools might be exacerbating the problem:
“A new study, published in Bar Examiner, reveals that law students are being taught to avoid seeking help for depression, addiction and other mental health issues for fear it will negatively impact their admission to the bar.”
It’s important that we de-stigmatize depression and mental health issues across all professions so that everyone feels safe seeking the help that they need. I do know that the law schools here in San Francisco at least acknowledge the stress of the environment as golden retriever Lucy and I are regularly invited to pet therapy during exam time at the law schools.
This crochet mandala is part of the. Mandalas for Marinke project. You can see all Mandalas for Marinke posts here.