Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Reality

Curtain - Painter IX


This week in FW is called Uncovering a Sense of Reality. I couldn't find my book to read about it on Saturday but it re-appeared on Sunday. And having sat down and read the chapter I realised I needed to alter most of the exercises to suit me. They are too word-oriented for me. I need to do them in pictures.

Working with SoulCollage®, as I have been since the end of last year, is a great way to do them. For instance the suggestion that one falls in love with oneself, I find that much easier through making cards that depict me rather than by writing words. Sometimes the words do come later. But pictures speak louder than words to me. For instance I already have cards called such things as:
  1. She who lives in the city
  2. Beautiful me
  3. Book Lover
  4. Night Dreamer
  5. The Gardener
I'd love to show them to you but I feel that it is breaking copyright to blog collages cut from magazines, etc. so despite the value of the pictures I'm only giving you their titles.

Now, using the five small actions diving rod, here is a list of cards for me to make:
  1. She who loves to be alive and present now
  2. She who prefers silence to noise
  3. She who sings to herself
  4. She who has the time to be herself
  5. She who makes pictures to show herself to herself
I've no idea yet how these will happen but I trust they will. And if they don't something else worthwhile will appear.

Quite a few cards start off as one thing and end up as something else - for instance I was doing one about my working self from my 20's - I'd started off thinking of it as something like She who stood up to her bosses - but it ended up with the title: Worker - Unmanageable. And I felt compassion for the people who had tried to direct the firecracker I then was - this was very healing for me, I forgave them in that moment.

One of the exercises this week is to make a picture of the critic or censor. I did this as a SoulCollage® card a while ago.

It called itself Boo-er and my picture depicted a brain sitting on a settee - now I don't need to reduce this down to size, but redirect it, engage it. I now love this part of me too. I feel that Julia Cameron is still at war with her inner critic rather than embracing it, loving it and re-directing it. I prefer this second option.

For more about SoulCollage® see the soulcollage.com
Or have a reading.

The last exercise in the book requires a date with a friend and ends with asking them for spiritual help too... what I'd like from all of you is to wish me luck, please!

And I wish you luck too.

15 comments:

Cream said...

Caro, I usually know where I am even if I am lost but I have to confess that this Soulcollage has got me unstuck!!!
I am glad you know where you are.
Good luck!

Caroline said...

Cream - I wonder what your reading said to you... you tease! And thanks for the luck - lots of luck to you too!

Leah said...

wishing you loads and loads of luck (even though i get the feeling that you don't need any!)

i love the way you've reframed the exercises to work for you. it gave me an idea about how to approach the writing about yourself as a character exercise. i may try it both ways and see what comes of it.

i love how the you in your 20's card changed as you worked on it! i think that openness to letting a piece change as it goes is so important in art. i never really know what's going to happen in an art piece when i start it, it's often quite different from what the initial spark was and i love that!

Caroline said...

Leah - thanks for the luck it feels good! Glad you found it helpful I was a bit worried about overstepping some invisible line here...

And I think its the mutability of art that is why it works better for me than words at the moment.

Melba - thank you - I'm glad that my stepping over my invisible line has helped you too!

Anonymous said...

Great post, Caroline, and I'm here to wish you all the luck you need :) I suspect you could write a book of your own, to teach us all a thing or two! I love how you've taken the 'rules' and used them to your advantage - I haven't even reached this part of the book yet, so thanks for the reminder! I knew there was something else I had to do! ;)
What's all this about mirrors? I'll go and have a look at your card blog, but hope you'll help me to find out soon...

Good Luck! :)

Joanna said...

Great post, I've been treading water and feel a bit stuck this week but if it luck you want I wish you all the luck in the world x Good Luck Caroline!

Caroline said...

Suzie Q - I have written myself various books - completely indecipherable to anyone else of course! Mirrors are everywhere - maybe I'll blog about it tomorrow... thanks for the luck!

Jo - thank you that's a very, very generous dollop of luck you've sent my way! At least if you are treading water your head is above it...

Tinker said...

I've been avoiding doing the reading and exercises the last couple of days - thanks for reminding me to focus - and for paving the way in bending them to suit the need.

Wishing you all the luck you wish for yourself!
:)

Laura B. said...

Good luck! I am a Finding Water blogger, too, and I think it's exciting that we're all only in Week Two but already experiencing magical moments. I will look forward to more of your pictures--

Unknown said...

Shooting star.

I just wrote an eloquent and enthusiastic response, but it turned into charred fairy dust when I hit "publish."

I loved this post and learned a lot from it. Good luck on your "asking for spiritual help" date. You probably don't have to ask in words. You could just ask on the heart level.

Tony LaRocca said...

Good luck, my friend. Sometimes it's hard not to view ourselves through turd-tinted glasses.

Johnnynorms said...

Big box of luck wending its way from the Normsmobile Caro - expressive delivery.

Ian russell said...

good luck! :o)

Caroline said...

Terri the Tinkerer - bend them, shape them, anyway you want them... thank you!

Laura - thanks for saying hi! I'll be sure to comment when I visit you too.

Potato Print - oops... thank you for taking the time to write again! I do lots of asking at the heart level... sometimes it needs to be out loud too!

Tony Larocca - thank you - your glasses sound a bit messy... have some cleaning spray...

Johnnynorms - thank you very much for the express delivery!

Ian - thanks for your and don't think you can cancel it by smiling like that!

Anonymous said...

I wish you luck! And success with your soul cards - I love what you've done with the ideas you are finding in the book to fit *your* life. It's great permission for me to do the same! (and my critic is probably my A student: you can't do that - it wasn't in the directions! Anyone who knows me would not believe I have a rule bound side to my personality!)