Committee Cards

By Anne Marie Bennett

Patience- Committee Card

Scpatience_1 When I first made this SoulCollageĀ® card, it was just the image of the woman looking out to sea.  I just loved how she was sitting there.  After I did the initial interpretation of the card (see below), I realized that she represented a part of me that is patient and calm while waiting, so I added the nautilus shell and blue spiral symbol in the bottom right corner to give it an added feeling of patience, calm, and grace.

Who are you? I am the one with nowhere to go and nothing to do. I am full of patience and abiding grace. I like to sit in silence and peace and let the world go on around me. I am not in a hurry. The world goes on and time goes on, and I am content to let it be. There is a stillness inside of me which passes all understanding, and when I access that, all else becomes unimportant.  I am waiting, waiting, and wanting for something to come to me over the horizon and into my view.  I am waiting, but with poise and calm and grace, and an inner knowing that it will come to me in its own time and way.  I wait for it without agitation.

What do you have to give me? I give you patience- calm, abiding patience… waiting that is without frustration or agitation or anxiety. What do you want from me? I want you to follow my example.  Ask for this gift of patience, for it is truly a gift.  Notice the presence of patience and impatience in your life… ask for patience whenever impatience has too strong of a voice. Additional bits of wisdom offered by this card when it has showed up in daily readings: 2/13/06- What I say to you today is this: make a card to honor your Impatient Voice, for that is a voice which is controlling you lately.  Listen carefully to what IT is telling you. Impatience is getting in the way of getting your body back to its natural weight.  I, Patience, can help you, once you remove Impatience from his throne of power in your daily life. 3/21/06-  I am the one who sits by the salt water, absorbing its healing essence with my stillness and an open body. I am the one who is healed by the water.  I am the one who allows myself to be healed, who wants to be healed, who is eager to be healed by the water.

4/12/06- I am the one who cherishes the waiting, who knows that this is the journey as well.  You can learn so much in the times of patient waiting. You are doing the work… now be still once the work is done… be still and allow the good things to come to you.

Jumping For Joy- Committee Suit

Scjumpjoy I made this card about four months ago, and yesterday it showed up in my daily reading, so I spent a little time interpreting it (see below).  Oh, I do so LOVE this card!!!  I actually left it on my altar in plain view instead of putting it back in my deck, so I can see it whenever I go past and be reminded of this delicious lovely energy that IS inside of me.

And then a very synchronistic thing happened.  I went to the Y and spent my time on the treadmill, and this time the only treadmills left were in the hall space overlooking the huge gymnastics room.  I noticed there were lots of toddlers and preschool children in there with their moms, but didn’t pay much attention. I read for a while on the treadmill, then one time when I looked up to turn a page, I noticed a little girl in a pink tutu, light skinned and fair haired, and she was bouncing up and down joyfully, gleefully, on the dark blue gym mats.  Then she was running, running, as fast as her little legs would carry her, all the way down the mat, and leaping into a wide bed of foam blocks.  Over and over she did this, my little girl in the pink tutu!  I went back to reading and when I looked up again,there were TWO little girls in pink, jumping for joy in the freedom they’d found in running, leaping, flying, jumping.  When I got my stuff together to leave, there were THREE fair-haired little girls in pink jumping for joy in that gymnastics room, and I smiled to myself all the way home.

Who are you? I am the one who leaps for joy.  I am the one who is jumping for joy.  I am the one who loves frilly girly dresses and the color pink and pretty flowers and going to my dance classes. I am the one who loves getting up in the morning, and going to school, and just everything.  I am the one who takes pleasure in moving my body.  I am the one who is pleased with my own wondrous, special, unique self. What do you have to give me? I give you joy- joy in who you are, joy in life’s everyday gifts, joy in what you’ve been given, joy in your own unique self. What do you want from me? I want you to express your joy a little more each day.  I want you to remember my energy, and consciously tune into it every morning.  I want you to stand up a few times during the day and jump for joy, the way you bounce up and down in the water when you get into the pool!

Dancer- Committee Suit

Sc2dancers Here is another card I made several months ago which has been in my deck all this time, longing to be given a voice.  I did the interpretation yesterday, in response to my own Challenge (see June 2)… and this is what I discovered.

Who are you? I am the one who moves in rhythms of color and light.  I am the one who is alive and laughing, and dancing with exotic scarves in bright colors.  I am the one who is fully alive and comfortable in my own skin.  I am the one who loves flowing skirts and scarves.  I am the one who is full of joy in the movement of my own body.  I am the one who lets the vital life force flow through my body, soul, and life.  I am the one who knows how to be present in my body, who loves the feel of my body in movement and dance.  I am the one who loves to dance, to move within circles of wild music and bright colors. What do you have to give me? I give you freedom in moving your body.  I give you a sense of joy and comfort in moving your body.  I give you rhythm as you dance, and I give you a sense of strength and gladness and acceptance of your body. I give you power as you move, power in your body. What do you want from me? I want you to move, to dance, and dance often! II want you to acknowledge your body as powerful, strong, beautiful.  I want you to embrace your vitality, and claim your body instead of cursing and rejecting it.

Fire Diver- Committee Suit

Scfiredive I created this card several months ago because I just liked the two images and how they fit together even though you wouldn’t ordinarily think they went together.  Today I did the interpretation of this card, in response to my own SoulCollageĀ® Challenge to spend some time interpreting a few cards that have been sitting in our decks for a while (see June 2 entry).

Who are you? I am the one who dives into the fire. I am the one who leans in and allows myself to freefall into the volcano of my feelings, my grief, my pain, my anger.  I am the one who falls into a hot seething fire which burns away all negativity and false expectations.  I am the one who freefalls through whatever happens in my life.  And beyond this fiery volcano is a cool, calm, peaceful sky, and a mountain nowhere near as difficult to climb. What do you have to give me? I give you fearlessness, to face whatever inner fires you fall into.  I give you an eagerness to know, to claim, to dive into those inner fiery realms of emotions.  I give you purification because you dared to plunge into the fiery depths of your soul. What do you want from me? I want you to go right into your inner worlds, no matter how scary and hot and dangerous they seem on the outside.

Grieving

scmaggie I made this card several years ago, with somewhat of an idea that it was about depression.Ā  Soon after I made it, our dear cat Scooter died, and I went into a time of deep sadness.

In the midst of my grieving, I suddenly remembered this card that I had made.Ā  When I pulled it out of my deck and looked at it again, I was filled with the most amazing sense of surprise and peace… because of the butterfly on that silly swing which I thought looked really cool there.

Who are you? I am the one who lies down in grief, who is tired from the sadness, who doesn’t want to ever get up again.Ā  I am the one who looks into the future and sees nothing of interest.Ā  I am the one whose empty arms clutch at substitutes for what I have lost.Ā  I am the one whose grief and sadness wash over me like ocean waves.Ā  I am the one who faces away from the sunrise, although I know it is there.Ā  I am the one who is transformed through my grief, even though I resist it, even though I don’t want transformation, only sleep.

What do you want from me? I want you to let me have my sadness.Ā  I want you to remember what I have lost.Ā  I want you to not let me forget that there will always be a new sunrise, that my sorrow has a place and a meaning.

What do you have to give me? I give you permission to grieve.Ā  I give you space and time to grieve.Ā  I give you hope in the time of your grief.

 

P.S. Several months later, after embracing the fact that I grieve so deeply because I love so deeply, I added the image of the little boy with the heart.