The Mandala – by Susie Wind
The great Mandala above our chancel was painted by EUUC member, Susie Wind. At the end of 2017, congregation member Marilyn Warner commissioned Susie to create a mandala in honor of the installation of the Reverend Cecilia Kingman as our Minister for Faith and Justice.
When Susie got the call and accepted the challenge of creating a mandala for her own congregation, she was honored and excited. She was being invited to bring her talent and work inside her own religious home! She knew whatever she made had to both reflect her own personal relationship with EUUC and be a work of art deeply meaningful for us all.
In the excitement of thinking and planning in the weeks that followed her invitation, she walked her dog a lot. Walking and thinking are things Susie liked to do. And as she walked the dog she saw the trees. They reminded her that John Muir, the great naturalist, talked about trees as nature’s cathedrals. Our trees here in the Pacific Northwest pull your mind, your eyes, and your heart upward, lifting the spirit. Susie set out to create something inspired by “nature’s cathedral.” Something that would reflect the unique spirit of the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Congregation. And something that would soothe us, energize us, and inspire us as we work and dance and laugh and cry and think.
Susie painted The Mandala in our atrium, right amongst us, so that the congregation might experience its gradual transformation. That way we could know its layers of paint and meaning, in the same way we experience the young adults we’ve watched grow since they were children in the Toddler Room.
Over time we bring our own spirits into relationship with our Mandala. We bring our own joys and our sorrows. Our laughter and our tears. the Mandala is there with us, imbued with its blessings of connection, beauty, and purposeful creation.
May it be so.