This terrific crochet mandala is from Helen of Stitchydragon Creates (also on Facebook) who writes,
“I discovered Marinke’s beautiful blog and, after reading a few posts, instantly recognized that it was perfectly named. Wink truly was a creative being.”
“She was also someone else on this road struggling to get through each day the best she could and finding creativity a major part of the process. I admired how open she was about her struggles while at the same time writing such positive posts; her love of yarn, color and creating shone through each one.
There is something healing about creating, but it is not a magic fix; with depression, there is no such thing. Although I didn’t know her well, I was so sad to read her sister’s beautiful post, so sad that they had lost the light of this beautiful soul in their lives.”
“When I read of the Mandalas for Marinke project to honor Wink and raise awareness of this beast we fight, it seemed like a fitting way to try and bring a rainbow out of this rain. I picked Wink’s Crochet Home mandala pattern and chose colors to represent sunshine, bursting through the dark skies of depression and bringing blue skies back. That hope can be hard, if not impossible, to see on the blackest days, but we try to take each day at a time and, as Wink said, “as long as I’m crafting, I’m alive, and as long as I’m alive, I might be able to find my way out of the darkness.”
As the posts for Mandalas for Marinke head towards a close (the core posts will all be up by the end of the month), I want to make sure that you have additional resources for depression awareness and suicide prevention. Here are some readings lists to bookmark and work through:
- Suggested Reading List from the Suicide Awareness Voices of Education
- Memoir Reading List from Families for Depression Awareness
- Depression Reading List from MentalHelp
- Living with Depression: A Reading List by Emily Perper
- Suicide Information Reading List from NAMI Austin
- Surviving Suicide Book List from American Association of Suicidology
See all posts from the Mandalas for Marinke project