When I got to our Tucson house and settled at my computer to scan over one of my eBooks for improving the editing, redo a cover on another because of complaints that it just didn't do the book justice, and keep up on the MOA forums (two I follow with interest), I looked up at the collage above my desk and saw something I hadn't put together before.
It goes back to 2001, when I was 58 and going through a LOT of changes in terms of who I was and what I wanted. I was entering the gateway to old age. Changes were ahead whichever way I was going to take them. It was then that I read about a tool to center yourself toward your deepest goals-- creating soul collages.
There were classes and books on how to do this, even making soul cards this way [soul collage book]. I ordered the book but never took the time to read it as I already had a feel for how I wanted to do it. I didn't want to make the cards as I used Tarot by that time which worked fine for my off and on needs. What I wanted was to create a soul collage for the wall that I could look at.
So, I went through my western and art magazines, cutting out images that spoke to me. It turned out to be a mix of art, people and scenery. The instructions are then to glue them to a board, which can be foam board, poster board, anything heavy enough to hold them, in a pleasing pattern to you.
The one above my desk here in Tucson was my second and created in 2002 during a four month period where I was staying here, often alone, as my husband would fly in and out for his consulting business while keeping up the cattle and sheep operation in Oregon. I had time to hike by myself, create a lot of clay sculptures (many still in this house) and think.
I did my last collage in 2003 back in Oregon. By 2004, it just didn't seem something that I needed to do; but I also hadn't seen how they had changed much to do the three I had. But you know often what we think is not speaking to us is doing more than we know.
Last week, when I looked up at the Tucson one I had to laugh. I saw my romance novels. What I had no idea back then was that I was pointing myself in the direction I would go. Although I was always writing I hadn't seen the connection between the collages I had done and the books. I see it now. The energy of all my romance novels is in those collages. I can't say the collages pointed me toward them but they sure do reveal them.
These images represent my innermost soul, but also the women I write about, the men they love and the energy of what I hope for in everyone of my stories. As I think about it, the two I have in Oregon do the same thing. All that was in me, wanting to come out, was in those collages. I didn't need to make more of them because they were there; and when I looked up at this one, I thought, yeah, it was a better tool than I knew.
So if you haven't found your own energy, this is a tool I much recommend. If you don't have the right magazines, head for a used store and pick up some that most interest you for the images. You might be like me and not understand how much it has revealed, but I think it helps even if is subliminally. Thinking about it now, I know they can serve as reminders each time I start a new book of what I hope will be in it for me to reveal and readers someday to discover.
