An array of spiritually-themed magazines blanketed the already-plush carpeted floor at Sacred Space. Beside recent back issues of Natural Awakenings lay similar back issues of magazines with names like Wisdom, Body & Soul, and Spirituality. An O magazine was there as well, along with other less spiritual but equally colorful magazines like Good Housekeeping, Living, and Simple magazine.
Propped up on a chakra-draped table against the sage green wall were several examples of what the audience could expect to see as their potential "finished project." Healthy snacks of dark, leafy greens and shiny red skins glistened beside smooth, creamy hummus and thin, round wafer crackers.
Two large round white tables, gifts from my #1 Fan, held the other supplies we'd need for today's workshop. Scissors of all sizes stood at the ready, awaiting inspiration to look, land, then lance into a fresh page of the magazine. Other types of shears accompanied the usual straight-edged blades: wavy blades, choppy blades, twirly blades, and a half dozen more types of wonky edged blades. Next to them, tubes of disappearing purple glue sticks and a rainbow of containers of colored, sparkly glitter.
As New Year's afternoon sun began to dip into the horizon, those rays of sunlight lit up the otherwise unmoving tubes of glitter. However, small prisms bounced off of the small, silver squares and onto the large round tabletops in twirling flashes of iridescence.
In the background, a flute played a soulful melody, providing white noise, allowing vision to unfold itself in each spirit.
Kindred Spirits gathered at Sacred Space. Coats were hung; shoes were removed; seats were taken. Scissors in hand, the leaves began turning and falling.
No destination dominated the instinctual and intuitive guidance of what images or words would become a part of the visions for the upcoming year. Outcomes, goals, and final products did not receive an honorable mention. The word resolution did not exist that afternoon. All the necessary tools were supplied: images, inspiration, and each other.
New friends became acquainted; old friends re-acquainted. And the leaves continued to fall.
Phrases began stacking up on the table in a semi-circle around each visionary. Images soon joined the ever-growing pile of inspiration that each one found to complete the ephemeral vision that was to come.
For my own vision, I had no idea what I was doing. I did not set my intention as I had intended to. I merely began flipping through pages, looking for...I don't know what. Something. Anything that would engage my soul, my deepest self. Images of healthy foods were littered around me, both on the table and by my feet, but precious few of them landed on my board.
Instead, it was something else that drew me to it. Something more. An ineffable calling to the truest part of my nature, a yearning to see something manifest from my deepest well of being. A longing for my core to express itself in words and images.
Looking through an untold number of magazines, I snipped out resonant phrases along with images that made little to no sense. They didn't need to make sense to my conscious mind for I understood, both consciously and unconsciously, that these images made sense to something more - something I could neither name nor identify - nor want to.
They tugged at my innards, my guts, my seat of "knowing without knowing why," and I trusted that place within me. It held the vision that my eyes couldn't see, that my mind couldn't comprehend. It just knew. And I trusted that it did.
Several hours of stockpiled clippings lay in wait before, around, and below me, and not one yet glued to the vision board. Wondering where to begin, I realized the question was unnecessary. Conscious decision making, an unnecessary part of this process. I would not create the vision; rather the vision would create itself through me.
Then, in an instant, the pieces began finding their way onto my white board, being guided from deep within my Self and not from my mind. The bottom-left corner beckoned, that space in feng shui that houses Wisdom and Spirituality, that speaks to the element of Earth. It was also the space where I placed the first of several red images, representing my Root Chakra.
Inspiration continued piecing me together with words, images, and of course, glitter! But inspiration was not only creating with me, but she was also eliciting comments of astonishment and wonder from her other children. Furrowed brows of confusion were fast being replaced by beaming smiles of awe and delight! When asked where she would place her masterpiece, one exclaimed, "On my Mom's fridge!" With those uninhibited words, excited agreement filled each person's heart and the entirety of Sacred Space.
The final slanted sunbeam of New Year's Day spotlighted piles of magazines dropped carelessly atop one another, cuttings strewn about the plush carpet, and bits of glitter glinting through the space of the carpet fibers, winking knowingly at the glorious mess that had been made.
Snapshots would finish the workshop. Photos that captured a moment, but not the process of what had occurred that New Year's Day. That is what this blog is for, My Kindred Spirits - to be that small piece of glitter on the floor, winking ;)