Creating a Collage: Thursday's Reflection

What doesn't seem to fit? I often ask myself this question when I have completed creating a collage. 

This is my most recent collage, which I put together recently on my 70th birthday, (You can read the post here.) and I am quite pleased with both the individual images selected, as well as the overall tone of the collage. When I look at the collage I see contentment and optimism about this entry into my 70's. 

The wrapped package reminds me of the many gifts of time and friendship and opportunity I have received over the years, but also a symbol of this time of life as a gift. I see open doors--more thresholds to cross and opportunities to experience. I see a pile of books, and you, dear reader, know how important books and reading is in my life, but the books also inspire me to keep working on the book I am writing. It seems significant that the labyrinth, an important spiritual practice in my life and the ongoing metaphor in my memoir, is located at the center of the right page.


I don't ignore the fact that I am entering a new stage of life, a new and older decade, but the woman pictured in my collage looks confident and happy and eager, and I do feel that way. And I love the scattered autumn leaves, gathered into a handful, a basket full of memories, experiences, even wisdom.

All good. I congratulate myself for being so open, so accepting, so satisfied with this time in my life, and then I notice in the top right hand corner a little pot containing a prickly succulent plant. 

"What's that doing here?" I ask myself. "It doesn't seem to fit the mood of the other pictures."

When doing a collage, the main instruction is to select images that appeal or speak to you in some way and to not have a pre-conceived notion about why or how it will fit into the whole picture. Only after completing the collage and allowing its messages to find a resting place within me, did I think about that plant with its sharp, biting leaves.  The picture of that plant is there to remind me that this time more than likely will not be only smooth or comfortable. 

Prickly, painful times may be on the path, too. And I need to prepare.

My path of preparation includes grounding myself in my spiritual practices, continuing to grow in my faith, giving myself in ways that nurture others, and living with an open heart.

That's what I see when I look at my collage.

An Invitation
What are you invited to see in the collage of your life? I would love to know.