Review
Opening the door to your inner life, March 7, 2002 - Reviewer: Marsh Hudson-Knapp from Fair Haven,, VT USA
I met Suzanne Fincher at a conference sponsored by Journey into Wholeness some fifteen years ago. I did not know it but I was in the first round of a fight for life: midlife crisis. My old life was crumbling before my eyes, and I went to Suzanne's workshop on making mandalas. We drew a circle and used crayons to just let things happen. Somehow, again without my knowing it until later, all the floating pieces of my life found a place within this circle called a mandala. It gave me a profound sense of peace, AND as I learned from Suzanne's teaching and this book, about how to work with my mandalas, they have provided me - throughout the years - a powerful vision for what is happening within me. I have shared this book with small groups and classes and people seeking wholeness and healing for many years with great blessing to each person who worked with it, and I continue to recommend it as the best single resource for mandalas, and a pivotal resource for sensing the moves of the Spirit within us. Suzanne's other book, Coloring Mandalas, is a delightful coloring book that offers many diverse models of mandalas representing places on the great round of the mandala.
One of the encouraging dimensions of regular creation of mandalas is the opportunity to see "progress" or movement within our lives when we are going through changes. I remember encouraging a friend to draw mandalas one time when they felt very alone and lost. After a couple of weeks when she thought she was going nowhere and learning nothing we sat down and compared her creations with the great round of the mandala and she and I could see her movement around the cycle, charting in a most beautiful way the progress/growth/movement within her life that she could not otherwise see, It provided a deep sense of peace and encouragement on her path.
Through the years innumerable folks have found a similar vision of their inner life through mandalas. May Suzanne's book help you start on that path! A small candle, some peaceful music, some crayons or colored pencils, and a piece or paper are all you need to begin. |
