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Highlights of this issue:
 Quotation of the Week
No matter what has happened, let today be new.
--- Alan Cohen Soul Friends The Voice of a Different Kindred Spirit Each Week  Lisa Thornbury Clark Cincinnati, Ohio I saw Seena's book online a while ago when I was looking for craft books. I had the book on my Amazon wish list for several years. When I was scheduled for a surgery last spring, I ordered the book and lots of card packs, with the intention of doing SoulCollage® while I healed from surgery. I never expected to be so drawn to making the cards! What I love best about the process is the images and how they just sort of come together. I love that it is a simple process that does not require you to be a professional artist. I love that whatever stage you are in, whatever emotions you are feeling, whatever is going on in your life, SoulCollage® meets you exactly where you are. How affirming and empowering is that?! The theme of many of the first cards I made was "affirming the radiance of life"....the inner light that is in all of us, and radiates outward. With images, I was able to express the transformative journey I had experienced through dance. My very powerful cards helped me finally express just how much I value and respect the power of movement and dance in my life. Then, looking at the images, and doing the "I Am One Who" process, I was able to articulate more about an important part of my life. I am now, finally, working on a few more "shadowy" cards. A bit scary, but I feel like I'm ready to explore this now. As a facilitator, I can share this process with those who are interested in giving it a try in a class setting. I am combining my love of movement and my love of SoulCollage® in experiential, multi-sensory classes. I am always amazed at the cards everyone makes. It is all so profound. My advice to newcomers is to trust the process, and let the cards be what they are. Use your intuition. Give yourself time and space for SoulCollage®. I made a declaration (to myself!) before I started making cards. I said that I would not try to make perfectly crafted cards. I don't want to get caught up in the craftsmanship and lost the spiritual, personal growth aspect. So my cards are wonderfully imperfect....and I don't stress about uneven edges, or anything like that. I have taken SoulCollage® cards to work with me on days that I feel I need an extra boost. I can just feel the extra healing energy by looking at the cards throughout the day. I use SoulCollage® cards to make mini altars at home. I have one SoulCollage® card hanging above one of my doors. You can get really creative with how to incorporate SoulCollage® into your life! My card making process goes like this. I usually start with images that grab my attention, not always sure what type of card category I will make. I usually start with a central/main image and then work (play!) around it. I keep separate stacks for larger pictures, smaller pictures, backgrounds, and animals to save some time. I have a special box where I keep images that I know that I'll use at some point in the future. I usually make a small altar and meditate prior to card making, in order to ground and center myself. Here are two of my favorite cards from my deck:  Inner-Dancer BlossomingCommittee Suit I am one who blossoms forth. My inner-radiance permeates outward and shines forth. I am energized and revitalized when I remember this force within me. I dance into light. This card is kind of like the foundation card of who I am, as someone (like all things are) connected to spirit. It reminds me that I am connected to the Divine, and, therefore, connected to all things........  Empress ArchetypeCouncil Suit I am one who sees, smells, tastes and touches the bounty of life. I am grateful for Mother Earth's bounty. I savor the lushness of life and I take time to enjoy the fruits of the harvest. I am inspired to plant new seeds and I joyfully await the harvest each time. This card was created during one of my Exploring Archetypal Energy classes. It was the first card that I made with more than a couple of images on it! I just started cutting images and let go of my typical process. I love looking at this card. To me it is so alive and lush and "full."
Please stop by my website, Inner Dancer. Also, I'd love to meet you on our September Kindred Spirits tele-class on Sunday September 20. More information below.  SoulCollage® ExpressionsIdeas and Challenges to Spice Up Your SoulCollage® Practice Idea of the Week Listen to the way you speak to yourself. Would you say those words to a loved one, a child? Set an intention to always speak to yourself with kindness and compassion.
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Our Next Tele-Class Movement and SoulCollage®: Blossoming Your Inner Dancer, with Lisa Thornbury-Clark SoulCollage® Facilitator in Ohio.  Your body is a powerful
vessel of your wisdom, your life journey and your own unique
expression of the Divine. Add movement and dance to your
SoulCollage® practice, and you'll create a multi-sensory journey
which will deepen your experience. Join us as we explore
playful and sacred ways to connect your inner-dancer to your
card-maker self. This tele-class will include experiential
movement activities as well as discussion.That's right, we'll be moving instead of just sitting and listening! You'll learn creative ways to add movement and dance prior to card making as well as ideas and suggestions for conducting solo and group movement and dance "readings" with your SoulCollage® deck. Please attend this call in a room where you have some space to move freely and safely, and use a phone with speaker-phone capability if possible. It would be helpful to have a yoga mat or blanket for the session as well as your SoulCollage® cards nearby. No previous movement or dance experience necessary. Invite your inner-dancer to come out and play! For more information about Lisa, please visit this page. For a simple and beautiful movement activity YOU can do at home, before or after your SoulCollage work, check out this page on Lisa's website Lisa Thornbury Clark, MA, combines movement, Middle Eastern dance, and SoulCollage into multi-sensory workshops as part of her side business, Thornbury Dance. She often teaches workshops with themes such as archetypes, chakras, and nature. She loves watching dancers open up to their inner-radiance. For her day job, Lisa has served a variety of populations as a community health educator and clinical research coordinator in hospital, education, and social service organizations.
Save the
date now. All of our tele-classes are FR*EE for members, always! And remember, don't worry if you can't attend... we'll be recording it and you can listen to it anytime in your Member's Only Audio Library. We will give you the phone number and access code to call in that week's issue of Soul Treasures. Upcoming Tele-Classes and Presenters: October 4, 2009 (Sunday, 2 pm Eastern) - SoulCollage® Through the Chakras, with Jenni Holloway, SoulCollage® Facilitator in California. In this tele-class, Jenni will introduce you to the Chakra Energy system, providing you with information on where each chakra is located and how they influence your body, emotions, actions, relationships, belief systems and relationship to the Divine. Jenni will highlight ways you can create SoulCollage cards using the Chakra System as a powerful organizing principle. Jenni Holloway leads yoga, SoulCollage® and chakra workshops in the San Diego area. Her specialty of combining yoga philosophy & chakra energy healing with contemporary models of developmental psychology & expressive healing arts create sacred experiences of self-discovery & transformation. November 17, 2009 (Tuesday, 7 pm Eastern) - SoulCollage® as Prayer, with Catherine Anderson, SoulCollage® Facilitator in North Carolina. In this tele-class, Catherine will guide you through simple exercises that will enable you to hear and record the prayers you have already captured in visual form in some of your SoulCollage cards. Using SoulCollage cards you have already made, you will create prayers that allow you to become more aware of the blessings in your life as well as prayers asking for help from your Higher Power. Catherine Anderson has been a SoulCollage facilitator since June, 2004. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where she teaches SoulCollage, Creativity and Photography workshops. She is also a partner in the business Whole Brain Consulting, an organization whose mission is to bring creativity and intuition into the business world. More information is available on www.catherineandersonstudio.com or www.wholebrainconsulting.com New England SoulCollage® Facilitator Training October 9-11, 2009 in Chester, Connecticut  If you've been longing to take your
SoulCollage® practice out into the world by becoming an "official"
Facilitator, then please join us for a beautiful fall weekend atThe Guest House
(so named for
Rumi's famous poem).Training participants make cards, share cards, and use their own processes as teaching examples for the group in learning how to facilitate SoulCollage® work. You'll learn how to facilitate "readings" which use our own intuition to deepen self-knowledge. You'll learn creative applications and how to adapt the SoulCollage® process to different populations. We'll work towards constructing a plan that fits each participant's intended uses of the technique. No degree or other credentialing is needed to register for this course. Enthusiasm for the process and its use in one's own life are the chief criteria for participation in the training Time is running out... Only a few weeks left to register! There's more information on this KaleidoSoul page. | ||||||||
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, by Craig Chaquico. During the '70s and '80s, guitarist/songwriter Craig Chaquico played lead guitar with the popular rock band Jefferson Starship, which surprised me as this album is distinctly New Age with a hint of the Southwest. Since the early '90s, Chaquico diversified his music and branched out more into new age or world music, as can be heard in his song "Just One World" and the 1994 album Acoustic Planet, his blend of guitar playing and recordings of African and Native American music. The song became part of NASA's Space Ark project and is now in permanent orbit around the Earth. Chaquico continued to release albums throughout the latter half of the '90s, but it was his charity work that deserved the most attention as he began to play one free hospital concert a week for children. He also encouraged many of his contemporaries and friends to perform similar shows. Recommended by Kindred Spirit Laurie in California
, by Cathy Lamb. I was riveted from beginning to end within the stories of the various members of the Bommarito family in this beautiful novel. It's about three sisters, a brother, a southern-belle terror of a mother, a grandmother who believes she's Amelia Earhart, a father who is long-gone, and two very quirky kids, the children of the furious sister. Each of the three sisters has major issues, and the brother is very special (you'll see!). This is a story about a family that's fallen apart and ends up being put back together again. It's about a Queen Anne house, a bakery, a motorcycle, a mid life crisis Corvette, flowery-smelling pink letters, an amusing divorce, burning bras, a crime writer, love, a kid who studies different religions each week, fear, giant cupcakes, a lost father, and a disastrous childhood partially spent living in a car. You will laugh and you will cry, I can promise you that! A bright, shining example of what a novel should be. 
