a window into my soul

this past march i was introduced to something called a vision board. my friend carol and i went to beverly's house to be coached through the process of creating one. picture us, three grown women sitting crossed legged on beverly's living room floor, pouring over magazines, ripping out pages containing anything - anything! - that caught our eye, appealed to us, spoke to us in some way. it could be a picture, a word, a face, a symbol, a phrase, anything. we worked in comfortable silence through a box of magazines that beverly dumped out in our midst. i put my left brain to sleep and grabbed magazines at random...whatever was within easy reach. when all the magazines had been rifled through, we moved on to the next phase of our project...sorting through the pile of images and words lying in heaps by our sides, cutting out specific things, paring them down to precisely what we wanted to use on our boards. then came time to bring out the white poster board and begin assembling - collage style - all our clippings. still working in silence, we began the lay out. once we were satisfied we began to glue things in place. when we were done, the silence lifted and we revealed our masterpieces to each other - explaining our choices - revealing scraps of ourselves - questioning - answering - listening - evaluating - sharing - offering observations - possible interpretations. it was an eye opening, inspiring, watershed day for me. i wish i could show you my vision board here. i keep it up on my bedroom window and look at it several times a day - sort of a window into my soul...a roadmap of where i found myself that march day. since then i've made another board, which i also keep in view...it hangs on the window directly above my computer screen. i wish you could see this one, too...this window into my soul...if you could, you would ask me, "tell me about why you chose this." or "what does this mean to you?" and i would tell you about "this side of heaven"...and sand castles and lanterns...seashells and baby booties...a roll of toilet paper and "amy's cottage"...and beach chairs...about the woman in white standing on a seaside rock, back arched, arms stretched wide, face lifted to the sky...and above her, one word: FREEDOM!

-grannymac