Sand Mandalas & Goodbyes

I’ve been thinking a lot about sand mandalas.   In the Tibetan ritual, a group of practitioners create an intricate geometric universe of colored sand, a road map to enlightenment, for those developed spiritually enough to read the signposts and symbols.  It can take many monks days to create on bended knees with prayerful chants.   After two decades of studying Buddhism, I think of my life as a mandala.  Who and what I invite into the mandala is always a matter of personal creation.  We all create our universes whether intentionally or by default, in either case we are creators.  

On bended knee for the last twelve years with the best team imaginable I’ve created a body of work at Patagonia that can be lauded or criticized depending on what angle you view it from. Stepping down from a job I loved for twelve years was not an easy decision, it was uncomfortable, it challenged me.  When I took the CEO job at Patagonia, a Buddhist friend reminded me “the vase has broken.”  In Buddhist philosophy we talk about the temporal nature of form and reality. You might receive a beautiful gift, like Yvon’s gift to me of making me CEO or like a vase (as in the parable my friend cited), but as you receive the gift you also see it broken. 

That might sound like a depressing way to look at life, always looking at the end of something when you’re starting out new but I find it energizes me to do the most with the time I have, and to encourage and lead others to do the same.  The work of Patagonia the company continues full force with an amazing team, but my chapter is written.   A good leader knows when the time comes to make room for the next generation to carry the work forward and fly to new horizon lines. 

I came to Patagonia because I wanted to discover for myself if business could be a force for good in the world after years of a career of making people rich who did little to elevate the world and were more interested in lining their pockets and the pockets of their heirs.  What I found was not only could business be a force for good, but it could also be the greatest agent of change in the world.  I’ve been inspired by so many great leaders and of course Yvon Chouinard, the master.

When the mandala is finished, after some days of viewing and contemplation, with ritual brushes the colorful universe is swept away, the sand is poured into a river that carries the prayers into the ocean and to the wider world.  If you’re lucky this happens to your work and those you’ve influenced - permeation to the wider world.  As I head off to my next journey, it’s with great intention and gratitude and appreciation for all who inspired me and worked for causes greater than themselves.  I’d like to remind you to invite worthy people into your mandala, live a life that matters, wake up every morning to make the world a better place.   Know when it’s time to get out the brush and create a new world, and as Thomas Wolf said, “find a land more kind than home, more large than Earth.”   Keep fighting the good fight. 

Rose Marcario