SoulCollage

“Your soul knows the geography of your destiny.  Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.” - John O'Donohue

This weekend, Charina and I attended her church's SoulCollage workshop. We gathered with a dozen women, most of whom were four or five decades older than I am. SoulCollage is a therapuetic process of intuition and creation-- you build a deck of collages (cards) which represent aspects of your psyche, community, archetypes and can be read to learn from yourself (like a personal tarot in some ways). Though a lot of the time was spent quietly and individually working, I was surprised by how strongly supportive the circle felt. Some of the women shared stories of their pain and of their joys.  We sang a short hymn that had been the wedding march of a lady as she and her bride were walked down the aisle by her mom-- who had also been a mother and nuturer towards her bride since her own mother had kicked her out after coming out. We cried together. Women. Most of the women in the circle had known each other for as long as my lifetime and it made me think with gratitude of the woven branches circling my forearm, of my own circle of friends, of who we will be when we've known each others across two or three decades.