Today’s Mandala
Structure
“Whatever affects one directly,
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
affects all indirectly.
I can never be what I ought to be
until you are what you ought to be.
This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
“Do you wish to be great?
— Saint Augustine
Then begin by being.
Do you desire to construct
a vast and lofty fabric?
Think first
about the foundations of humility.
The higher your structure is to be,
the deeper must be its foundation.”
“In every crisis there is a message.
— Susan L. Taylor
Crises are nature’s way of forcing change
– breaking down old structures,
shaking loose negative habits
so that something new
and better can take their place.”
Today’s MotD asks us to consider the concept of structure. While it’s fun and creative to do things on-the-fly, we can be even more creative within the confines of structure. For instance, a jazz musician who understands the structure and fundamentals of music can take her improvisation to much higher levels of creativity because she knows how the notes, chords, key, tempo and rhythm all work together allowing her to push the envelop of her musicality. It’s much easier to bend and shape the rules when you understand them.
Another perspective on structure involves giving our lives some form of structure, which in the long run gives us more freedom. For instance, if we have a scheduled routine every morning, then we know by following it, the items in the routine will get done, freeing up the rest of the day to work on other things. Without that structure, there’s a good chance that only some of it will get done and it could be that they happen much later in the day or not at all.
We realize everyone works differently around structures, routines, and schedules. As an experiment, try for one month (or even a week) adding some structure to a part of your day and see how that works for you. You may realize that the way you were doing things before the experiment works fines, or you may find that having more structure works much better.
Ultimately, it’s about exploring how to use some form of structure to our advantage.
Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
btw…started with this:
Mandala of the Day 