Thursday, May 13, 2010

My New 1Mandala Portrait



The 1Mandala project has been undergoing a fundamental shift. A team has synchronistically come together to co-create a renewed foundation for the project. This has meant a subtle yet profound shift in the type of portrait that we invite. We now call for creative portraits that "reflect the change you want to see in the world. Be the peace, the love, the joy of this new way of Oneness. Show and send one in! Get creative!"

Maybe you are part of an organization or group that is making the world a better place. Get creative! Use our uploader to do so and share your message and project link with the world! By weaving all these portraits together we will celebrate and amplify the emerging oneness consciousness on the planet.

To kick things off I, Russell the artist, attach my new 1Mandala portrait. With joy I share me being the change, the Oneness that I would love to see in the world.

This portrait is taken with some of my fans here in Manila-- basketball fans to be precise! I have been playing basketball in the ghettos of Manila near where I live with some of the most disadvataged people in the whole wide world. The guys I play with drive bicycle cabs during the day and sleep on the sidewalk at night. Their partners (the fans shown here in the portrait!) have children so young and have absolutely no options. The babies crawl on cardboard and the kids beg on the street. They are so close yet so far from the rich people in the apartments nearby. They are even more seperate from someone like me who grew up in Canada's Yukon. It is almost like we come from different planets.

But of course we don't. We are connected. We breath the same air and walk the same Earth. Our children will one day work together or work against each other. I ignore them, their plight, and the vast system that has created such monumental divisions and imbalance at my peril. Humanity has put a man on the moon, tamed the atom, and engineered the most amazing things-- together we can do so much better at making the world a more humane place. For me, here in Manila, it has started with making new friends and playing some crazy fun basketball in my flip flops-- with my fel

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