Danita's Crochet Mandalas for Marinke + Pam Houston Quote

In yesterday’s post I shared some information on the possibility of animal suicide from the book Animal Madness. Today I wanted to share a quotation that I found in that book. It is by Pam Houston, from Contents May Have Shifted:

“I’m beginning to understand that when we want to kill ourselves, it is not because we are lonely, but because we are trying to break up with the world before it breaks up with us.”

The first part of that didn’t resonate with me at all. I felt deeply lonely when I was in suicidal depression. I felt lonely in my own individual life and I also felt the striking loneliness of being so small in the universe and in the big history of time. But what did resonate for me was the second part of the quote, the part about wanting to break up with the world before it could break up with me. That really struck me as a personal truth; I wanted things to get better but I didn’t think it would and the world was causing me so much pain that felt like abandonment that I just wanted to nip the pain in the bud and end it before life itself could kill me.

And that brings us to today’s crochet Mandalas for Marinke, which come to us from Danita Clark. We learn from RedBubble that she’s from Seaview Downs, Australia, and that it wasn’t at all a stretch for her to make crochet mandalas. In fact, she writes,

“I love creating Mandalas. The word mandala in the ancient Sanskrit language means healing circle and they are seen in spiritual traditions throughout the world as healing and transforming art for meditation. Today mandala also refers to symbols that are created from a circle. I have been creating mandalas since 1998. I enjoy reflecting emotions and thoughts and ideas within the framework of the mandala. They are all unique.”

She uses an intuitive meditation technique to create personalized mandalas including those for special events. She can also be found on Facebook. The ones that she crocheted for this project were inspired by Wink’s mandalas.

This is one of the posts made in honor of Wink, in celebration of crochet mandalas and to raise depression awareness. See all Mandalas for Marinke posts here.