| Soul Singing with Anne Marie |
Hi!
I'm Anne Marie, the creator of KaleidoSoul.com, and a
SoulCollage® facilitator in Massachusetts. If you're just starting
to sing your song with SoulCollage®, this column is especially for
you.
Staying Close:
Grieving Over a Beloved Animal Friend
In the summer of 2009 we adopted a beautiful five-year-old yellow lab named Suzy. She was a feisty sweetheart who bounded (literally) into our lives with exuberance and joy. So much energy! I tried taking her for walks but I found that I just couldn't control her. So my husband and I took her to a six-week training class at the local pet store.
 The first commands we learned were "sit" and "stay." Then we worked our way up to "drop it" and "leave it" and "wait." After that, we graduated to walking with Suzy. I thought the command for keeping the dog beside me would be "heel." But instead, our trainer used the word "close" as in "stay close beside me."
The next weeks as I was taking Suzy for her daily walks, I found myself saying the command many, many times. It almost became a chant. If she pulled on the leash too much, or tried to stray I would give the command:
Close, close, stay close, stay close. It had a nice rhythm to it! If she got sidetracked too long by a certain clump of grass, I would chant again:
Stay close, close, stay close.
After several days of this, the command Stay Close was so ingrained in me that I was hearing it in my sleep and in my dreams! And one day, when I was telling Suzy to
stay close, I had the distinct impression that Spirit was telling ME to
stay close as well. Stay close to Spirit, keep myself grounded in Spirit’s wisdom and grace by keeping my thoughts and actions aligned with what I know to be true, and by staying connected to the people who love me without measure, as I loved Suzy.
In November of 2018, we said good-bye to Suzy as she made her transition back Home. By then, she was completely blind and mostly deaf. It had been difficult to watch her aging during the last year or so as arthritis in her hips made it increasingly harder for her to accompany me on our walks.
The grief I felt in the months following that tearful farewell was draining, to say the least. I managed my sorrow by journaling, and taking extra care of my body, and by EFT Tapping which didn’t take away the grief, but lessened its intensity and helped me to not get stuck in it.
Another thing I did to help me through the grieving was to make a new SoulCollage® card for Suzy. I felt the need to give image to a new relationship that I sensed was forming, now that her body is gone and only her spirit remains with us. I cut out the image of Suzy from a photo of her when she’d first come to us. The other images I already had in my stash and they seemed to beg me to join Suzy on the card!
This card now sits in a prominent place in our upstairs hallway where I see it and touch it every time I go into and out of my Quiet Room (aka my study). It is comforting to me in a most visceral way. Suzy’s energy seems to beam into my heart right off of that card, and I allow myself to continually be reminded of her presence and of all the love she gave us and of how much she taught me about playing and loving and enjoying life.
And sometimes I can almost hear her sweet spirit whispering to mine, “Stay close, Anne Marie, stay close.”
Putting It Into Practice
If you’ve ever experienced the particular grief that follows the loss of a beloved animal friend, there’s a 60-minute audio in our Kindred Spirits Members Only Audio Library where I share cards similar to Suzy’s second card (above) that I made for our cats Sasha and Scooter after they died in 2006 and 2011. Also there are some excellent journaling questions to help you process through the three stages of grief associated with pet loss (sadness, remembrance, and spiritual growth), as well as some excellent resources.
EFT Tapping is also an amazingly helpful resource for handling grief of any
kind. Here’s a way to get started.
And finally, I would suggest that you make a separate SoulCollage® card for any beloved animal friend who is no longer with you. Take your time to seek out the images that feel “just right.” And then ask him or her, “Who are you?” and “What is your gift to me?” and any other questions that rise from your soul. This is such an excellent way of staying close to that animal’s spirit, because it is still very present to you even though you cannot see him or her.
Anne Marie Bennett is a SoulCollage® Facilitator / Trainer, published author, website goddess, and two-time cancer survivor who was mentored directly by Seena Frost. In 2005, she fell in love with SoulCollage® and was inspired to use her professional experience along with web technology as a means to serve the world by putting SoulCollage® "out there" in a really big way with KaleidoSoul. Anne Marie lives in eastern Massachusetts with her middle-aged husband and two adolescent felines who keep them hopping. Anne Marie’s books about SoulCollage® are available here.
|
| OUR NEXT VIDEO
CLASS |
The SoulCollage® Witness Card
60 minute SoulCollage® tele-class
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Marti Beddoe from Illinois.
Date:
Sunday October 27, 2019
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the
World!
|
| Guest Columnist: Cat
Caracelo |
 I am Cat Caracelo, M.A., a SoulCollage® facilitator, depth coach, teacher and artist from Petaluma, California, offering my work individually and in global teaching forums. This column is for all of you who are exploring your creative and are ready to discover more depth in your SoulCollage® journey.
When Grief Comes
Pain. Loss. Grief. There are many ways that grief comes close and impacts our everyday lives over the course of a lifetime. Our heart breaks and we feel so much it is hard to hold or even know how to respond.
Profound or subtle, grief is experienced in so many ways.
 As difficult as it can be to talk about, grief and loss is hard
not to acknowledge. We are surrounded with personal, collective, communal, ancestral, and generational grief. It is something that touches every part of our lives. In a world that is experiencing rapid and constant change, there is a need for continuous tending and releasing, expressing that which is so hard to grasp and equally hard to escape.
When it comes to grieving, we must have safe space to release and express…unfurl, release, quietly fall apart, or cry, scream, tear asunder… time to sit and wait until the time we are ready, and then slowly we will step, mend, stitch, make sense, express, remember, cry, recover… and all the while we are bringing together the edges and wounded places of the heart.
Tenderness, understanding, and compassion are wise and patient companions to times of deep grief - allowing us to create the needed safe space inside, for us to face life, within the loss and pain.
Compassion is defined as a deep caring for the pain of others, accompanied by a desire to help. It is interesting that compassion is less often defined in terms of oneself when self-compassion is one of the greatest strengths we can develop, one of the greatest gifts we can receive to navigate grief and loss.
We move into compassion for ourselves when we identify, understand and forge a new relationship with whatever lives within us, naming and claiming the many ways grief is being experienced and expressed.
 So often grief and loss are complex and confusing - more easily held beneath the surface, tucked away so that one can fake it and function. It is through the deep meeting of ourselves within the deep landscape of grief, that we can find and foster what is most important. This helps us to find a way to
move with the grief into a new place of being.
We move into compassion for ourselves when we can communicate with and unravel the fears and false beliefs that we have absorbed from our past experiences. Many times, it is hard to understand the fallout of traumatic or unexpected loss. Grief is profound, yet we will downplay our own feelings and responses, comparing and forcing reconciliation when time has not had a chance to begin to heal.
Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
up to where you’re bravely working.
- Rumi
We may find at times that we are making ourselves wrong for feeling, reacting or responding to transition, grief, loss and change in our own unique way. There is no right way or wrong way to move though the experience of loss, only
our way.
There is no hierarchy of Grief. The experience of comparing, dismissing and holding judgment toward one’s own expressions of grief can be an indication that moving onto the path of compassion is needed.
The experiences which may evoke grief experience include: work transitions, life-stage transitions, early childhood trauma, attachment or neglect, illness, loss of a loved one, adult trauma and trauma at a distance, tragedy in the world, earth-based pain/changes, personal losses, changes in ability and mobility, aging, empty nest, life-style change, loss of desired outcomes, crushed dreams, care-giving, compromised health, illness of loved ones, death of a pet, change in our living situation, natural disaster, challenge with relationships, communal/political change and the list goes on and on…
We must be present to the grief that is within us. It is real and needs to be acknowledged and held with compassion.
Through SoulCollage® we have the opportunity to explore the true nature of our own experiences, immediately within our creative experience and over a more extended time allowing our cards to speak to the deeper truths that are held within. Using our art to process and speak to grief, allows the undercurrent to be acknowledged and recognized. It can be surprising and profoundly comforting when our grief stories surface in unexpected ways.
Grief in not an exact path; it does not follow a prescribed cycle, and it cannot be anticipated or avoided. It is one of the initiations that we, as humans, are destined to go through but desperately want to avoid.
Choosing the path of creative compassion offers opportunity to meet ourselves within our grief, to travel with our grief, to enter into a new phase of the journey through life and love and loss.
Allowing your experiences with grief and loss to move to you and through you creates a compassionate space to be beautifully human. In times of loss and transition it is important to invite your artmaking to become a path of release.
May your creative practice guide your process and mend your heart.
Creative Prompts
Explore the one or more of the following prompts with your own SoulCollage® cards. This approach can be a way to safely connect with what is held within your story, and a way to express when grief is acute and lingering.
What I see…
What I feel…
What I know…
What is missing…
What remains...
What is healing…
What is held…
Within the whole there is…
Cat Caracelo, M.A. is a Depth Coach and SoulCollage® Facilitator since 2007, working with expressive arts and transformative process to guide individuals and groups internationally. Cat is the founder of
JourneyPath Institute and JourneyCircles™ Process. Her dynamic
Mythos Journey + Quest eCourses and retreats offer transformative process and mythic themes designed to explore one’s own stories, seeking healing and expand possibility. Please visit Cat’s website Journey Path Institute to find articles and information about depth coaching, classes, training programs and retreats.
|
|
|
KaleidoSoul Creations |
As promised, we
are featuring SoulCollage® cards from our readers in each
issue.
Each card below is a card from one SoulCollager's Deck that represents the idea of
Sorrow or Grief.
Angel of Sorrow
Council Suit
Natalie
Colorado
I am one who weeps for humanity's profound losses, both individual and collective. I weep for those who lose loved ones, with those who anticipate their own death, and with those who grieve over the deaths of victims of war, violence, starvation and disease.
Reflections on My Mom's Passing
Committee Suit
“T”
Colorado
I am one who admires my mom's strength and courage. I am one who has come to realize how my mom reframed the pain and loss in her life with divorce, the loss of her young adult son, and 2 bouts of cancer, greatly admiring that she ultimately chose to focus instead on that which brought her joy, especially her love of painting, music, and theater. I am one who is grateful that my mom, with her love of arts, gave me an appreciation for the same.
Heartbreak
Committee Suit
Tisha
Michigan
I am one who is frozen in pain as the world rushes on around me. I am one who is in a ball of despair, drowning in the water of my own tears. The jagged edges of my heart cut through the walls of my chest; I feel the sensation of anguish drip throughout. I am numb, unable to put the pieces back together.
Is This Death?
Community/Council Suits
David
California
I Am One who was blindsided by illness, and bravely, consciously, and with acceptance, met my fate, sooner than later, to my surprise and sadness.
Doula
Council Suit
Cat
California
I am the one who stands at the chamber of the dark, the witness to your suffering and pain. I am the scar written on the skin, the knife that cuts the pain, the keeper of undone dreams and lost things. I gather my skirts to walk the edges of the underworld with you as you travel its broken path. I am the banshee and the child, the howling grief and the wild. When you are ready, I'll guide your light to find its home in the heart.
Walking into Love
Suit Unknown
Claudette Hunter
California
I am the one who sees death as another journey, far more amazing than we can ever imagine.
(From Claudette) I made this card seven years ago when a dear friend died. It has comforted and sustained me and others through many losses since then. I hope you find peace in it.
Survivors of 9/11
Suit Unknown
Dani
Washington
We are the survivors of 9/11.
We remember those who lost their lives.
We live at the effect of that day and it shapes us.
We carry the loss and grief in our hearts, as we pray for Peace in our world.
May all children be safe.
Please feel free to submit one of your cards for a
future issue by sending a reply email to this
newsletter.
Future themes include:
November: Transition/Change
December: Holidays
|
| |
 KaleidoSoul Notes
Noteworthy resources for
anyone interested in SoulCollage®
 Facilitator
Trainings: Information about content and dates/locations of upcoming trainings of SoulCollage® Facilitators.
SoulCollage website
- Seena Frost created the process of SoulCollage®, and this is her website.
KaleidoSoul - Spinning the fragments of your world into wholeness and beauty through SoulCollage®.
Kindred
Spirits Join our fast-growing worldwide membership of people who put the "soul" in SoulCollage®!
|
|
CONTACT US
|
|
|
|
Sample of
Anne Marie's Books
|
|
|
|
|
Save $10
SoulCollage® Workshop in a Box
Two Weeks Only
|
Includes:
- SoulCollage® Evolving softcover book by Seena Frost
- 100 untrimmed images along with suggestions for using them
- a pair of good quality 8″ scissors
- a large acid-free glue stick
- 15 precut 5″ x 8″ mat boards
- 15 clear bags to protect your new cards
- + 2 e-books and 1 audio recording by Anne Marie Bennett
|
|
Half Price 4-Hour SoulCollage® Video Retreats
|
September 2019 - May 2020
 Looking for ways to
go deeper and have more fun with your SoulCollage® cards?
We’ve got just what you need!
Each of our Video Retreats includes a
4-hour Zoom video class recording, plus handouts and resources.
7 retreats led by Anne Marie Bennett
1 retreat led by Audrey Chowdhury
Work through the material and exercises
at your own pace.
Use the material and activities and teachings to
deepen your own personal work with SoulCollage® and/or to
create your own SoulCollage® workshops!
|
|
ONLINE SERIES
with Jennifer Boire
Her Journey: The Heroine’s Quest
|
October 16 2019 – November
20 2019
We are the contemporary heroines seeking to answer the age-old questions:
Where am I going?
What is my purpose?
The mid-life quest is a journey to reclaim the
Feminine values
of intuition, rest and inner knowing.
 A quest involves a spiral journey to the center, and a return with new knowledge. Explore themes and archetypes ruling your story using SoulCollage®, visualization, and myth.
This is a
6 week e-course including a secret Facebook page and prompts by email, along with synchronicities and surprises. Jennifer is available for guidance within the Facebook page. Enjoy from the comfort of your home, at your own time and pace!
Investment: $99 Canadian
$75 USD
Visit this page
for more
information now.
|
|
SoulCollage® Facilitator
Training
|
MASSACHUSETTS
SOULCOLLAGE® FACILITATOR TRAINING
Westfield, Massachusetts
December 9 - 13, 2019
Trainer: Anne Marie Bennett, assisted by Jeanne Marie Merkel
ANNE MARIE’S FINAL TRAINING
Join us at the peaceful Genesis Spiritual Life Center in western Massachusetts for a unique weekend experience of community, learning, laughter, and professional training to enable you to spread the joy of the SoulCollage® process in wider circles in your world.
Note: Anne Marie is hanging up her Trainer’s Hat, but not her SoulCollage® Hat! After December 2019, she won’t be doing Facilitator Trainings any more but she will continue leading online classes, as well as workshops and retreats in person. KaleidoSoul and Kindred Spirits will be her primary concern, going forward!
No matter where or how you want to use SoulCollage® in the wider world, this Training will leave you feeling prepared and ready to go!
Current Facilitator Circle Members: Take this training as a refresher, and save $250.00. Please inquire before registering.
Payment plan available.
Visit this page for more
information.
|
|
Upcoming SoulCollage®
Retreats
|
|
PENNSYLVANIA
Women Who Run to the Stones
Bangor, Pennsylvania
October 11-13,
2019
Facilitator: Marci Wenn, Maryann
Frantz
1
Space Left!
Join a group
of Outlandish women for a SoulCollage®
weekend and embrace the Myth and Mystery of
the standing stones at
Columcille
Megalith Park, a place where curious
travelers can transcend time and place and
discover their personal Outlander Wild Woman
archetype. Ample time will be allotted for
personal exploration of the grounds. Using
the standing stones as a portal, we will
explore several techniques during our card
making that help us recreate our own
personal journey to our Wild Woman nature.
Enriching this experience will be
exploration of the Labyrinth, storytelling,
drumming and yoga movement.
Visit this page for more info.
The
registration form with payment info is here.
MASSACHUSETTS
A Journey Back to You- Retreat at
the Beach
Falmouth, Massachusetts
November 1-3,
2019
Facilitator: Minette Riordan,
PhD., Susan Nutting
Explore art as a
creative process for connecting and
listening to our own inner wisdom.
Experience different aspects of mapping and
identifying parts of self through
SoulCollage®, JourneyCircles™, Art
Journaling, Zentangle® and bookbinding. The
interplay between these different processes
will offer a deepening of your experience as
an artist. Learn new skills and explore how
to layer different tools to create more
meaningful experiences. November is a
perfect time of year to pause, reflect and
gather the wisdom learned during the year as
you cast your gaze forward to the coming new
year. Come to play, create and expand.
Visit this page for more info.
NEW
LISTING!
CALIFORNIA
Embrace Your Creativity: A
SoulCollage® Feast for the Soul
Scotts Valley, California (1440
Multiversity)
November 3-8, 2019
Facilitator: Mariabruna Sirabella
Every personal story is engineered through
the unpredictable and inescapable encounter
between our own nature, willpower, and the
external forces we must contend with. Along
the journey, sometimes we forget our
inherent wholeness and potential. This
empowering experiential workshop invites you
use SoulCollage® to travel back in time and
take a fresh look at who you are, what you
have gained throughout your life, and what
you have already contributed, as you
reimagine your lifeline with new
perspective. Explore how SoulCollage
supports organizational development,
conflict management, and compassionate
awareness for leadership in any field.
Visit this page for more information.
NEW
LISTING!
CALIFORNIA
Let’s Talk About Love- Annual
SoulCollage® Winter Retreat
San Rafael, California
November 21-24,
2019
Facilitator:
Mariabruna
Sirabella
Love is hidden in plain sight within
every SoulCollage® card. Mariabruna invites
you to explore your Neters’ deep springs of
Love and use them to illuminate experiences,
from personal needs to spiritual longings.
At this retreat you will: Explore the facets
of Love. Expand your awareness of its
presence in your deck and the world. Harvest
love from your Neters through consultation
of your deck. Create new cards to anchor the
salient steps of this journey. Acquire tools
for self-care through the love that
surrounds you. Explore the deep connection
between love and the four Elements.
Visit this page for more information.
NEW LISTING!
CALIFORNIA
Invite Your Daemons to Tea: A
SoulCollage® Retreat on the "Shadow"
Big
Sure, California (Esalen)
February 23-28, 2020
Facilitator: Mariabruna Sirabella
Your creativity, imagination and intuition
will guide you in a stirring exploration of
what C.G. Jung termed “Shadow”. You will
“Invite your Daemons for Tea” to access the
great reservoirs of golden energy hidden in
“shadow” areas of the soul we tend to judge,
fear, or ignore. Those secreted, yet
necessary inner parts are a most potent
source of change and freedom. Engaging them
in a new relationship ignites a quiet
revolution that brings gifts of choice and
joy to the soul. Creating and using
SoulCollage® cards together with poetry and
movement will entice transformation in a
respectful, inspiring environment.
Visit this page for more information.
ENGLAND
Return to Avalon - Goddess Retreat
Glastonbury, England
April 25 – May 8, 2020
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo
Join Cat in 2020 as she travels to a place of myth and memories, where the landscape is a mirror of the Soul. Return to Avalon at Beltane, honoring the goddess at May Day festivities! Experience a dynamic, heart-centered time of renewal, discovery, depth and connection. Join with kindred women to embrace this sacred place, staying in a restored farmhouse, with two homes, orchard, view of the Tor and spa on site! Journey to sacred sites, explore the earth-based energies, honor the Goddess and make inspired art with SoulCollage® and more, in this all-inclusive retreat to Glastonbury, England and surrounding areas.
Visit
this page for more information.
NEW
LISTING!
BALI
Immerse Yourself in Balinese Culture while doing SoulCollage®
Bali
May 25 – June 3, 2020
Facilitator: Erica Crawford and Edy Phodes
Join two facilitators for a journey to
identify your Spirit/Totem animals through guided meditation and your own inner wisdom. We will be making cards for our Companions Suit. We will do this in a small village in Bali hosted by our personal friend and his family. You will get to experience the food, dance, art, and so much more in this traditional village where the only accommodations are owned by my friend. It's a once in a lifetime experience to do SoulCollage® there amongst the orange groves and rice fields. Contact me for more detailed information. Namaste.
Contact Erica for more information: 831-596-1437 or
ericacrawford@mac.com
PORTUGAL
Soul Songs of the Spirit
Praia da Vitoria, Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal
Rescheduled for 2020
Facilitator: Lisa Schad, Robert Hitz
Lisa is co-creating this special transformational retreat with Improvisational Pianist and Master Teacher Robert Hitz. They have designed a unique retreat on a magical island in that interweaves music and SoulCollage®. Each day, Robert will lead the group in a series of personal/musical experiences through the elements of GRACE: Gratitude, Reverence, Awe, Connection and Enthusiasm. The music will be interwoven with SoulCollage® as participants give voice to the cards and themselves. You will also experience natural ocean pools, lava tubes, spirit houses, magical forests and quaint villages, along with the freshest seafood and most hospitable locals. This will be a magical opportunity to manifest your mermaid archetype in house and ocean pools. All supplies included.
Contact
Lisa to be notified of new dates.
|
|
CONTACT US
|
|
|
Soul Songs
Back Issues - Read back issues of Soul Songs on this
KaleidoSoul page.
Just look for whatever SoulCollage® topic you are interested
in,
and read to your heart's content!
SoulCollage® is a trademarked process created by
Seena B. Frost.
For more information about Seena and the origins of SoulCollage®,
please visit her
website
SoulCollage® cards are
made either from one's own art or from images found in materials
which have been bought by or given to the SoulCollage® card maker.
These collaged cards are used only for the cardmaker's own inner
exploration. SoulCollage® cards are not sold, traded, bartered, or
copied (except as a back-up for the cardmakers own use) as is
stated in the "Principles
of SoulCollage®." Where SoulCollage® cards are available to
be seen by others, it is for the purposes either of demonstrating
the SoulCollage® process or of sharing the cardmakers' inner
process in the context of community. SoulCollage® is grateful to
the artists and photographers who make this deep awakening process
possible and in all ways SoulCollage® seeks to be respectful of
their rights.
All articles in SOUL SONGS are copyrighted 2019,
by Anne Marie Bennett,
Cat Caracelo, Linda Woolfson,
Marti Beddoe, or Michele Manos.
Articles may be reprinted by permission only.
|
|
Soul Songs
