Inside Out with Your
SoulCollage® Deck


60 minute SoulCollage® tele-class
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Michele Manos in Arizona.

Monday, November 9, 2015
7 pm Eastern
 

My name is Catherine Anderson and I'm a SoulCollage® Facilitator and Trainer from Charlotte, NC. I am delighted to be adding my voice to Soul Songs and hope that my words inspire you to look more deeply into your deck of SoulCollage® cards.


The Legacy of Our Grandparents

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

If I had to choose the one person who has exerted the greatest influence in my life it would be my paternal grandmother. Both my grandfathers had died by the time I was born and my grandmother Edith became my primary caregiver shortly after my birth as my mother needed to go back to work.

Edith was a grandmother who didn't just indulge me, she taught me in each moment but how to be a strong woman. It was Edith who gave me money to open my first savings account and told me that it was important for a woman to be independent and always have her own money (she called it "running away money"). It was Edith who introduced me to poetry - I can still hear her reciting D.H. Lawrence. It was Edith who shared her love of history with me and it was Edith who bought my weekly subscriptions to magazines which were the highlight of my week. There were so many ways that this strong woman influenced my life and made me who I am today.

Having my Edith SoulCollage® card in my community deck is really important as I only have to see her face to feel stronger, knowing that I contain her DNA. Her life story reads like a novel. She traveled to South Africa from England as a young bride in 1920, and then had the courage to divorce her husband two years later when she discovered he never intended to be faithful to her. She returned by ship to England with her young daughter (at a time when to be divorced was a disgrace), only to return a couple of years later to marry the attorney who had fallen in love with her when he handled her divorce. If she could do this in the 1920s, I know I can take risks and stand for what I believe in, even when it is difficult.

What I love about ancestor community cards, and in particular grandparent community cards, is that I know I can reach out for guidance whenever I need a dose of wisdom from these people who are so much a part of me. If we have been lucky enough to have a meaningful relationship with our grandparents, there is a void when they die, and our SoulCollage® cards are a way of being able to turn to them for their special kind of insight born of the unique and deep love only a grandparent can give.

In addition, a SoulCollage® card for those grandparents we have not known, the ones we have only heard stories about, is a way to connect to them and even understand ourselves a little better by asking guidance from those who are part of our genetic makeup.

Creating community cards for my grandparents is one place where I particularly love using the old photographs of them that I am fortunate enough to have. On the card I like to remember that my grandparents weren't always the "old" person I saw when I was young, but that they also experienced the journey of youthful inexperience and middle age change. If you are uncomfortable using original photos, scan (or use your iPhone to photograph) the old photos, and print out copies to collage together. I also scanned a lace handkerchief and a glove that belonged to my grandmother Edith, and included these in my card.

Shirley Abbott says: "Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies." I think including our ancestors, particularly those that lived just before us, in our SoulCollage® deck is a perfect way to ensure that the wisdom of our ancestors guides us on our journey of life.


Catherine Anderson is author of The Creative Photographer, Collage Imagery, Journaling the Labyrinth Path and is a SoulCollage® Facilitator Trainer.  Catherine leads creative pilgrimages to Italy, France and Ireland and is a teacher in the 2015 Spectrum Holistic Creativity series. Catherine's website is catherineandersonstudio.com.
 

Congratulations to Our Winners!

Angela Ekvall
from Minnesota

Kay Ross
from California

Pamela Linnell
from New Mexico

each won a Blessing Bundle 
for joining Kindred Spirits in June.

Congratulations, and enjoy your membership!!

Winners were chosen using the Random Number Generator at random.org.
 

 

My Grandmother
Community Suit
Melisa
Ontario, Canada

I am the one who you never had the chance to know. We were separated by geography and language, and the circumstances of life. I am the one whose knowledge and wisdom died with me, though many parts of me lived on through my many children. I am your lost opportunity, the missing link to your past, to who you really are.




Gramma
Community Suit
Amy
North Carolina

I am the one who likes to be pretty and the center of attention - I can light up a room! I am the one who pinched my pennies in the depression. I am the one who is crowned in money I can't see. I am the one who asks "Do I not have any money, is that why I have to stay here?" I am the one who used to keep cash in the house and used it to bail out friends and family who couldn't make their bills or needed to fill their tanks to get home. I am the one who feeds the birds. My maiden name is Blue and I am slight and pretty as a blue bird. I am the one who loves you a bushel and a peck.




My Grandfather
Community Suit
Carol
California

I am the one who worked deep in the caverns of the belly of the earth in the coal mines of Kentucky. I am the one who kept all my men safe. As foreman, I never asked my men to do anything that I myself would not do. I am the one who loved my daughter unconditionally. I was often gone for weeks at a time, but I wrote her notes telling her of my love in my big scrawled handwriting. I am the one who came home with black lung. I am the one who turned to farming to continue caring for my family. With only an eighth grade education, I continued to read and to learn, becoming a self-taught man.




Grandmother Iris
Community Suit
Connie
California

I am the one who has always loved you, supported you and encouraged you. I am the one who has proven that Grandmother Love transcends time and distance. I am the one who has gifted you my love of flowers and gardening and I know you treasure that gift.




My Grandmother
Community Suit
Nancy
New Jersey

I am the one who left too soon. I am the one who whose visits were rare and special. I am the one who kept going no matter what.




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Facilitator Trainings: Information about content and dates/locations of upcoming trainings of SoulCollage® Facilitators.

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