The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Wishing you happiness. -Helen Keller
It's November as I write this! The holidays are upon us: Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, the Solstice, Kwanzaa, Christmas, a New Year beginning, and others. It's a busy, stressful time, but don't let busyness stop you from nourishing your Soul with images and imagination. It's a perfect time to gather a few good friends to sit for an afternoon and create SoulCollage� cards to honor these wondrous archetypal events. Create a Gratefulness card or a Lightbearer card or a Divine Child card, all archetypes you might want for your Council suit. Have some fun identifying Committee members who come up for you in the holidays, and make cards for them: your "Hostess with the Mostest"... your "Holiday Child" who loves surprises... your "Shopper Self" who goes overboard... or even your "Scrooge" self who grumbles and complains, and wishes it were all over. And who else is there? And what other archetypes grab you with their passionate purpose during these weeks?
"A Family SoulCollage� Card"
by
Laima Peciukeviciute
SoulCollage� Facilitator
I was a brand new facilitator on a family vacation with my two children and their father, my former spouse, scavenging local dining and shopping guides for images on the island of Kauai. I was going to make SoulCollage� cards with my family. It was my youngest child who said something that moved me to go one step further, to offer something no one had mentioned in the Facilitators' Training. Being the younger one, he so much wants to be like his brother, to be his brother's age, to have his brother's friends, always living in the future. Would he want to make a card just like his brother? He wasn't looking up or even around the table when he placed the last image on his first card and whispered, "Now it feels so right, I want to remember this feeling."
Everyone went around and placed their chosen image on one and the same card -- our "family card." The youngest placed a reflective glass orb right in the middle of the card. He is our mirror and has always made us pause and reflect on exactly what we are doing when caught in the momentum of things. Our firstborn chose a turtle swimming upward in swift motion. He brings urgency and potentiality for growth; he challenges everyone. Ready or not, we move forward through our difficulties and joys.
Their father placed a pretty wooden bowl with flowers on the side. He seeks stability and ground for himself and the family. He is the one who has always wanted home to be solid and the ground stable. Knowing that, it's easier to forgive that the solid and stable ground might not speak the language of one whose nature is to fly and speak in color.
As for me, I added a butterfly on a blossoming flower, right inside the wooden bowl. As it is sometimes said, while one admires the beauty of a butterfly, one rarely remembers what it took to become one. I bring the belief that while we have not lived together for five years now, and while the boys travel back and forth between their two homes, we are a family, a collage of our souls, and this was our family card.
As a new Facilitator on a family vacation in Hawaii, I was humbled. I teach Creativity, but the truth is, it teaches me.
I plan to continue exploring creativity through SoulCollage� in my art studio through workshops and classes. With much excitement and anticipation, I look forward to seeing how SoulCollage� will influence my thesis topic and the creative process in the future.
*****
Laima is a SoulCollage� Facilitator living in Seattle, WA. In her studio, she is known as Elma and you can email her at elmacreativearts@gmail.com.
Check out this video by Facilitator Carolyn Durgin
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SoulCollageTM www.carolyndurgin.com |
Carolyn Durgin is a Facilitator in the Denver, CO area. Carolyn's years of experience working with people has given her an abiding compassion for others. This compassion, along with her belief that every person carries within them a deep reservoir of wisdom, are values she brings to her workshops and that continue to enrich and guide her own life. http://www.carolyndurgin.com/