This week your challenge is to add at least one card to the Community Suit of your SoulCollage® Deck.
A good start is to make a short list of some people or animals in your personal Community that you would like to honor with a card.
Our Community cards include:
family
friends
teachers
pets
those who have passed on
artists, authors, musicians, poets
sports figures
politicians and religious figures
Remember, you don’t need to have met someone in order to include them in your Deck.
Then go through magazines or your own pile of saved images while holding the names of these Community members in your heart. See which images call to you, and rip them out! It is best to do this with more than one person/animal in mind, and be open at the same time to other images that you might want to use for future cards for other suits.
Seena Frost, foundress of SoulCollage, said that the Community Suit is often overlooked, but also the most powerful of the suits. Take a look through your deck and see if its richness can be deepened by adding some cards that contain the voices of the people and animals who love and support you.
From a very young age I have been drawn to dolphins but I never thought much about it until 2004. My mother died that year, and the week before her stroke, I was reading Madeleine L’Engle’s A Ring of Endless Light. I found myself totally captured by the intuitive nature of the dolphin. Also, there were many messages for me in that book about communicating with other beings in ways beyond words. This is how I came to allow Dolphin to choose me for my 6th Chakra, the intuitive third eye, located at the center of the forehead.
Who are you?I am the one who is the prince (and princess!) of the seas. I am the one who smiles, who laughs, who Knows. I am the one who rides the waves in pleasure and delight. I am the one who loves to play, who can “talk” to humans, who knows what others are feeling just by listening to their thoughts. I am the one who knows that communication exists on many, many levels.
What do you have to give me?I give you freedom from time constraints, freedom from past and future, freedom to remember this present moment.
I am the one who is intelligent and imaginative. I am the one who sees, inside and out.
What do you want from me?I want you to slow down, to take the time to play a little each day, to remember your outer “tribe” of playmates and to let go of all inner and outer judgements and to give yourself permission to play often.
After several years of living with my first Dolphin card, I took Seena’s advice and created a Dolphin card with no human energies on it. So this is the Animal Companions cards that lives in my deck now.
Do you have an Animal Companion card that you would like to share with our SoulCollage community? Please do so over at our KaleidoSoul Yahoo Group!
Take some time this week to listen very carefully inside and see if you can discern the voice of your Inner Cheerleader. This is the voice that encourages you, and cheers you on, even when you think you cannot do something. This is the voice that says the opposite of what your Inner Critic says.
Find some images and make a SoulCollage® card to honor this very special part of your inner world. Turn up the volume on this part, and watch what happens to the voice of your Inner Critic.
NOTE: Your “inner cheerleader” might not be dressed like a typical cheerleader. She might not have pom poms or a megaphone. What does YOUR inner cheerleader look like? Activate her (or him) today.
Who has wisdom or advice for me
as I enter my 60th year?
Sacred Markings
Sacred Markings- I am the one who has markings on my body. I am the one who is inwardly AND outwardly aware. I am the one who is tenderly offering my gift to the world. My gift to you is the flame of your inner seeing. I give you the ability to see clearly, both inside and out.
My wisdom for you as you turn 60 is this- Keep a healthy balance of Eyes Closed – Eyes Open, and continue to tenderly share whatever you see with the world, your world. Trust that the waters of Spirit will carry your gifts to those who need them most.
Teacher- I am the one who is a teacher. I am the one who sits in the circle of flames and joyfully shares what I know. I am the one who is apart from AND together with those who are learning. I am the one who never teaches alone. I am freely offering what I have been given from the Great Teacher, whose Hand is always available to me for guidance, encouragement , and support.
My wisdom for you as you turn 60 is this- keep on teaching! This is an integral part of who you are. And remember, you teach well through your writing, not just from the spoken word.
Angel of Patience- I am the one who calmly and tenderly waters the plants and flowers. I am the one who is from Beyond. I am the one who continues my task calmly and with great, tender focus even though a lightning storm rages outside of me. I am the one who knows that growing things takes time and I am the one who is patient with all growth.
My gift to you is slow and tender patience. Be patient with your OWN growth my dear one. And remember this wisdom-
YOU have not stopped growing, just because you are now 60! There is much more to learn, there is much more growth to incur before you leave this lifetime. Be tender and patient with yourself. Be accepting of all storms raging around you. Maintain tender focus on your own precious growth.
Artist Muse
Artist Muse- I am also the one who maintains calm and tender focus. I am the one who is very present amidst my art supplies. I am the one who breathes the fresh air (through the open door) of new creative projects. I am the one who taps you on the shoulder and reminds you to JUST DO IT!
My gift to you is the question, “What do you really really want?” And my gift to you also is the direct nudge to find a way to focus and give that, whatever it is, to yourself.
So, you are turning 60? So what??? No big deal! Age is just a number, I say. My wisdom for you about this is a reminder- art is important to you! Art is crucial to YOUR personal and soul growth. Keep this in the forefront of your mind! Don’t put me and art on the bottom of your to-do list all the time! You want to make art journal pages? Go make ’em! You want to paint and make cards and cut up bigger collages? Go do that! Creative art projects keep you young in spirit! Rejoice in the art play! Mess around! Rejoice in all that color!
Every year around Mother’s Day, a part of me begins to grieve the fact that I chose not to have children. This was a personal choice and to this day I do not regret it. However, around this time of year, one or two of my inner voices simply feel sad.
At first, I fought the feeling, trying to rationalize it away. But then I learned to accept this sadness. It only lasts a day or two; it is part of my personal history and I believe it is meant to be honored, not shoved away.
Last year while flipping through magazines, seeking images for a workshop I was leading, I came across the image of mother and child that is on the right side of my card shown here. And as I gazed into her eyes that first time, I could almost hear her saying “You would have been a good mother.” My heart brightened at this message and I determined to make a card to honor this new voice inside of me. She feels like a champion somehow. I don’t know if she is Committee or Council, but it doesn’t matter. Her wisdom runs through my mind and heart and eases the difficult sadness I usually feel at this time of year:
Who are you? I am the one who would have been a good mother and you know it. I am the one who is so good with children. I am the one who is comforting and kind and accepting of children. I am the one who knows how to take care of children. I am the one who loves children.
I am the one who is tired of all the inner voices who are telling you you would’ve been a bad mother. I am the one who knows this is hogwash. I am the one who knows I can be impatient and who has a quick temper BUT I am also the one who knows that that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have been a good mother. I am the one who knows in my body-mind-soul that I would have been a good mother.
I am the one whose gifts for mothering in this lifetime have had to take other forms.
I am the one who didn’t have a great mother when I was young AND I am the one who now knows that that doesn’t mean I would’ve been a bad mother.
I am the one who is strong and soft, who is safe and vulnerable. I am the one who holds those I love with single-hearted focus. I am the one who is held by the feminine spirit of Mother God.
What gifts do you bring? I am the one who gives you the KNOWING that you would’ve been a good mother. I am the one who gives you the confidence to say this out loud and often: “I would have been a good mother. I chose NOT to be a child-bearing mother in this lifetime and that is exactly as it should be.” What do you want from me?I want you to stop beating yourself up for choosing to not have children. I want you to stop the Inner Naysayers who have been feeding you all kinds of LIES about why you aren’t a mother. I want you to believe with all your heart that you would’ve been a good mother.
You have all the qualities of a good mother- you are loving and generous and you know how to nurture. Just because you have shortcomings, doesn’t mean that you would have failed as a mother. I want you to OWN THIS!!!
