Our 26th Ojai Day Mandala was a truly amazing fifty-foot-diameter 3-D honeycomb, shaded in fire colors from light to dark. We had been transformed by the fires that threatened our homes surrounded our valley and filled it with smoke for 5 weeks.  Our smallness in the face of the elemental power of the unceasing forest fire made our need for each other, our true connection, undeniable. 

This Mandala was a more complex piece than we had ever done. We were inspired by the deep feelings the fire had brought forth within us and our fellow community members.

We created our first 3-D geometrical art piece, a spherical honeycomb popping forth from the street.

 

With eighteen cells in our spherical honeycomb, each one  was an artist’s space for their own expression of what they love about our valley. We had a beautiful variety of vignettes. There were two painted sections that spoke for me eloquently and yet silently. One section was a tipi set in a field with the mountains as a backdrop. In front of the tipi was a water woman outside with her water bucket with the fire showing through the opening. The other vignette had a bear holding a honeycomb. Two of my spiritual circles were represented this year, directly opposite the mandala from each other. When I saw that this had been done and how it spoke for me without ever saying my name, I realized it was a synchronistic reflection that came from the broader circle. 

Our personalities want to claim recognition among people yet the truest recognition comes from observing how the unseen forces reveal that which is operating in the field. We are not separate from the whole; as individuals, we are one of many interconnected parts, a multitude of One, as illustrated by the spherical honeycomb.

In creating communally like this we are living our connection through the action of creating beauty together, our shared gift by and for each other.