Having the Tibetan Monks in Pittsburgh this week, reminds me of my personal mandala of impermanence.
When I had a memory quilt exhibit of all of my parents clothing and textiles, I asked Kyoki from the Zen Center of Pittsburgh to help me create a ritual of loss. She suggested I unmake a quilt in the same spirit as the Monks.
I called it my Wise Woman Ritual using the symbol of a peacock, the symbol of integrity and the beauty proudly displaying its glorious colors. 43 women gave me their materials of memory. I made each into an individual feather-shaped quilt and attached them to a coat composed of the women’s signatures on pieces of my mother’s table linens.
The women came to the exhibit and each removed her feather to unmake the quilt.
I know how the monks feel after the sand has swept away- unencumbered and satisfied with a job well done.
BubbeWisdom 
I remember it well. What a moment of insight.
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From time to time I take out my “feather” and think…what should I do with this now? the various items of memory that made up the feather have so little relationship to my now and yet seem to dear to let go. Maybe my own process of unmaking is required.
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