by C. Constance Conn
March 2016 marked the one-year anniversary of a dramatic event in which my life became inextricably linked to SoulCollage®.
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Near-Death/Rebirth, Constance Conn
I Am One Whose understanding of my past and future life is dramatically altered, from my vantage point on the new path that I travel.
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When I first discovered SoulCollage® about two years ago, I found the process to be uniquely powerful as a deep well of self-discovery and healing. The cards that immediately began to manifest, and that continue to do so, have been amazingly revealing and therapeutic. I quickly developed a personal love and enthusiasm for SoulCollage® and then began to watch it work its magic in others to whom I had introduced it. I knew then that I wanted to deepen myself and to further share this gift with others, so I signed up to train as a Facilitator with Catherine L. Anderson.
On March 27, 2015, I left my home near Atlanta, Georgia in the early morning to drive to Catherine's studio in Charlotte, NC, USA for the Training. Somehow I knew that my cards were my companions on that journey and were not to be relegated to the back seat or floorboard, but rather to be placed in their closed box on the passenger seat beside me, in their rightful position of honor.
I never arrived at Catherine's studio that day.
At a little after 9:00am I was driving on a major interstate when I was precipitously struck by an eighteen-wheeler traveling in the lane to my right, as it suddenly careened into my vehicle. It forced me into the vehicle to my left, and my car began to spin. My spin de-stabilized into end-over-end flipping. Astonishingly, I actually left my body, in a near-death experience as my vehicle went through its tumultuous world-gyrations and my cards tumbled around me.
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Between the Worlds, Constance Conn
I Am One Who is "here" and in my body but who is also "there." IAOW longs to live in the NOW of here/there with my life centered in fulfillment of my divine design.
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There was no bright light or tunnel. I was absolutely sure I was dying. I went to a very quiet place somewhere "between the worlds" and waited for the assault on my body to end so that I could pass on to the "next world" beyond death.
Finally the wild chaos ended (after an eternity) as suddenly as it had begun, when I crashed headlong into the cement wall of the overpass. I was jolted back into my body and suddenly found myself very much, and quite unbelievably, ALIVE, in a cacophonous world of noise, pain, smoke, stench, and sheer chaos. I was shocked - and disappointed to be here, for I had tasted the wonder of what is beyond.
It was such a cataclysmic event that, by the laws of physics, I should not have been expected to survive. I was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital trauma center where it was quickly discovered, to everyone's amazement, that I had no broken bones and required no immediate surgery. I had a lot of soft-tissue trauma and sustained a concussion and a gash to the head. All in all, my injuries were miraculously minimal compared to what might have been expected in such a situation. I was observed overnight in the hospital and released into the loving care of my daughters, who took me home the next day.
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Held in His Hand,
Constance Conn
I Am One Who knows my life to be divinely guided. I Am One Who knows I have nothing ever to fear.
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During my hospital stay, one of my daughters went to the tow yard to find the crumpled hunk of metal that had been my vehicle, and to retrieve my personal belongings. I particularly asked after my SoulCollage® cards, which she carefully collected. During my zero-gravity dance with death, my SoulCollage® cards were literally whirling and swirling all around me in the car. When it was all over, the vehicle was so mangled that the outside had come in. The cards were covered with mud and blood, but because they were protected by their plastic sheaths they cleaned up nicely, and other than a few gouges here and there they, like me, were amazingly intact.
A month or so after the wreck, and as soon as I was physically able to do so, I sat up to my SoulCollage® table again to discover that new cards began to pour forth from me. And what powerful cards they are! SoulCollage® became a very important tool in helping me to understand, process, and integrate all the significances of an experience that was definitely "in," but also very much "out of this world."
This year since the wreck has been filled with challenges, physical, emotional, and spiritual, but I have come to appreciate the gift of it all. I have spent this year asking many deep questions of my Lord, beginning with the obvious, "Why did You keep me here?" I have learned to listen and to commune very deeply, and in the process I have grown and been changed.
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Labyrinth (Council & Committee Suits),
Constance Conn
Council: I am Labyrinth. I am the experience of the life of spirit that is to be found through the realm of the physical.
Committee: I Am One Who has been shown her path. I now know that through the body, the senses, and the path of Earth, the realm of the Divine can be discovered.
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More than anything else, I have come to learn that I am held, cherished, and protected by Divine Love, a love that is beyond anything I could previously have imagined, and that I have nothing ever to fear. I learned that I have been kept here to receive and to express this divine love and thus experience "heaven" right here on earth before I go Home.
I learned, through walking this singular journey with my Lord, that I am completely unique and very "special" and that my divine relationship with my Beloved is profoundly intimate, even beyond the most loving of human relationships. This is a great miracle. But even greater is the miracle that EVERYONE is just as unique and special and just as intimately beloved by this Infinite Source of All Being, however you understand and perceive it.
About four months after the accident I was finally well enough to attend Catherine's Facilitator Training. It was a wonderful and monumentally powerful experience. I will always be grateful for the caring and sensitivity Catherine brought to orchestrating my Training to make it the full-circle experience that contributed so perfectly to my healing.
Since then, I have been holding monthly SoulCollage® gatherings and have continued to grow in this experience, with an ever-deepening appreciation. Continuing my own SoulCollage® work and facilitating the process for others has become one way for me to live the journey of exploring and sharing the miraculous Love that permeates all creation. We can find it anywhere, and especially in each other's hearts.
C. Constance Conn is a Certified Professional Midwife with an active homebirth practice. Working with the whole woman and the whole family has always been integral to her philosophy of care. She is also a Certified Martha Beck Life Coach, and completed her SoulCollage® Facilitator Training in 2015. Constance is a member of the Baha'i Faith.
