Thursday, February 13, 2020

A Personal Altar

A local tea shop had a class last Saturday on how to create a personal altar.
I thought the example above was quite lovely.
Bonnie at https://www.instagram.com/somepinkflowers/ often shares mandalas,
which I find are the same feel as creating an altar.
I have followed Bonnie for a long time as a blogger and now on Instagram
and have always been fascinated by her creativity making mandalas.
The one time I tried making one I did it on my front porch on a windy day.
Well you know how that turned out, it immediately blew away.

So I decided to take the class.
I had no idea what would greet me when I walked in the door,
but loving flowers I was thrill with flowers in abundance.
There were herbs and stones too.
It was like channeling your inner spirit/child and playing.
I had brought along a few things that had significance to me
and added them to my altar of remembrance.
The seashell with the gaping hole was given to me many years ago
by a boyfriend that died in a car accident.
The concrete with green paint is from the Berlin wall and
reminds me of walls people try to put up around themselves or a country.
There was coral, seashell, and rock with lines reminding me of the
grounding I feel when I walk by the sea.
Stones to point the way forward.
And acorn empty of it's nuts representing my love and protection of nature.
And always rosemary for remembrance, heart shaped leaves, and the centerpiece color
and delight of a flower.
The chrysanthemum petals just because they needed to be sprinkled about.
Have you ever done something like this?
Does it bring remembrance or signify something in your life.
The teacher talked about intentionality in making an altar,
a way of meditation and thoughtfulness to pay attention to those thoughts
that signify something in your life.

I may not do this regularly, but I can see it as a time to gather scattered thoughts
and be quiet for awhile.