One way to find JOY....
do some collage art!*
I love this lady's smile!!!! ...... the crow is the Native American totem for my birth month.
Oranges, browns and blacks hold this all together. The art quilt designed by Susie Swan, is from a Matisse called "The Amber Necklace". Her quilts were featured in a recent Home Companion Magazine.
On the flip side of the quilt is a guide to doing a deep and healing "inner" smile from yogo teacher Lilias Folan. [ I remember the wise man in Bali telling the heroine of "Eat, Pray, Love" that the secret of meditation was easy, it was to "smile"...."smile with your liver", he said.]
* Just before bed last night I picked up a book I read from once in a while, "Spiritual Housecleaning" by Kathryn L Robyn. (subtitled, "Healing the Space Within by Beautifying the Space Around You"). The page I opened to (without "thinking") was a section called, "Alone, Not Lonely: Solitude".
She talked about spending quiet time on READING....literary novels which will help "grow" your
heart...not newspapers and magazines, technical manuals or professional journals. She also said,
"People used to make art to call upon the sacred self...Sitting alone, or even quietly in a group, carving, sculpting, painting, sewing, weaving, quilting, etc., is often the best way to take yourself to the inner place of connection.......try making a collage, cut out pictures that represent who you are deep inside. Or who you once were or dream of yet becoming. Glue them on a sheet of poster board and hang it in your bedroom. Rekindle your sacred spark!"
That was synchronicity for me! I had thought the book would say something like, "clean out the basement", organize your linen closet... ( she does indeed cover these things in the book and goes much deeper into the depths of cleaning than most of us are aware of! LOL!) but the page that opened for me last night said to make collages! So I am affirmed in my cut and paste journey!
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