Images of my Soul

This is a vision board. My friends Toby and Kerry suggested I create something visual to inspire me on my life journey. I turned to my other good friend, Photoshop, to help me make this digital collage.

All the things I love are represented here as actual activities (canoeing, working outside) and symbols of what I want my world to feel like (natural with a little sanctuary inside). It's overly dark, I know, but I've always loved the I Ching imagery of how the dark fuel creates the flame. Darkness is the dimension where dreams are born. The flame represents the power of fire to fascinate, enlighten and destroy. The water reflects the light but it too has the power to extinguish the flame. The drop of blue water, where warm meets cool, represents my action to access both.

The horse images represent many things to me. The horse in the corner is the most incredible horse of all time, Secretariat. He was the love of my life back in 1973 when I was an 8-year-old horse-crazy girl. Click here to see a video of his Belmont Stakes win. You'll see the power of this magnificent animal, and I dare you not to get goosebumps as he wins by 31 lengths ahead of the other horses. He represents endurance and heart. The weather vane points to new directions in life, and the labyrinth, the Minotaur, represents the journey within. In most legends, the Minotaur is half man/half bull, but I liked this image with him as half man/half horse.

The birds represent the dual application of my spiritual learnings. The dove is a tribute to the legacy of my Catholic upbringing, and the hawk represents a looser, less dogmatic, and more natural approach to my spiritual journey. I love the formal aspects of the dove image, how art and light represent a classic religious mystery form, and the image of what I call "highway hawk spirituality," a mix of Western beliefs influenced by aboriginal nature spirits.

The hugging image is especially powerful. Its a wall of words hugging a female outline. The original image had an actual picture of a woman, but I cut her out to envision myself being embraced by my own words.

I plan to blog about the words on my collage in future postings. This will challenge me to focus on my vision, and I'll post revisions to the collage as I go along.