Spending time in nature is something that continues to decline in the fast pace of today’s society. This human nature disconnect is like a growing epidemic that continues to suck in our next generation and perpetuates the alienation of our society to the natural world. The Earth Institute at Columbia University has a great article authored by Renee Cho called “Why we must Reconnect with Nature.” It is in similar realizations that I make a conscious decision each day to help guide my child’s interests in nature getting outside to explore as much as possible even on some of colder days of winter. Playing outside building snow forts, making snowmen, and sledding are some of my son’s favorite winter time activities. As a family, we also love getting outside in the winter to go ice-fishing, play hockey, nature hike, and explore winter’s frozen wonders.
I have been really excited about mandalas lately spending my free time throughout the day and into the evening making mandalas with natural found objects. As much as it helps me to unwind calming my mind and focusing it on the positive creative energy being put into the piece, it also inspires my son and gets him excited about mandalas, the natural world, and exploring the combinations of the two together. We decided to do a few fun activities together exploring mandalas that occur in the natural world blending our mutual love of photography, science, and exploring our naturally led curiosities and creativity. These activities were guided by two questions. What types of natural objects can we find in our own backyard shaped like a mandala? –AND- What other kinds of things have mandala-like, natural designs?
To explore our first question, we prepared to head outside. We made sure to have a bag to collect a few natural objects, some which were mandala shaped and others that could be used in a reflection activity where my son could make his own natural found object mandala. We also packed a pair of pruners, a good magnifying glass, and a small, black tupperware lid to use as a collection tray for inspecting snow. You can bring any other items you feel called to use for this activity that will aid you in your observations, perhaps a nature journal or other tools for making observations. I brought our pocket microscope which always comes out when we’re exploring the natural wonders in our yard up close.
Having had a fresh, new layer of fluffy snow the night before, I was hopeful that we would be able to observe the individual mandalas of each unique snowflake. Going out earlier in the day, gave us the opportunity to view some snowflakes prior to their structures melting. We were amazed by their diverse, mandala-like shapes and able to see the beautiful designs using both the 4 x magnifying glass and the pocket microscope that I set up on the table outside. After exploring the snowflakes, we continued to explore other areas in our yard on the search for other natural mandalas. Following are some of the pictures of what we found.
After the explorations in our yard, my son felt inspired to create a mandala of his own using some of our collected natural objects. He used the snow as his canvas! Here’s what he created. It was really fun watching him be inspired by some of these designs in nature. It also led to discussions on how so many things in the world occur in circles.
We explored our second question inside with some of the natural items we had on hand. These items included the collected shells that I have from Florida and some of the fresh fruit we planned to have for snack time.
Have fun discovering mandalas along side your kids! Please, feel free to comment and share your explorations in the comment section below. The community at Nature Art Exploration would love to see how you and your kids get inspired by nature’s mandalas.
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