Vision Boards: Thrive and Engage

So last weekend my awesome friend Sarah invited me to come to a gathering of people at a community house in St. Louis called the Sophia House. Sarah was the guest speaker that evening and discussed her recent projects: recording her music album, working on her PhD in Social Work, and coordinating The Mozambique Initiative. The theme of the night was: Coming Alive. While there I had the awesome opportunity to meet some beautiful spirits who were also striving to live their life out of neutral and in forward, creative purposeful motion.

One of the things I learned about that night from Sarah's friend Rosie was the concept of  vision boarding.
In a nutshell, it is a way of collaging with a certain intent. To quote Christine Kane:

The idea behind this is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where you want to live, or where you want to vacation, your life changes to match those images and those desires.

If you read my last post, you know I sort of have my hand in many of passions at this point in life and loving the process. Side note: yesterday my counselor told me that people with my personality type love the process of discovery and sort of "turn off" once the discovery is made.  Yeah, she is good.  I am really beginning to dig deep into these vision boards, especially the ones about intent and purpose. I am planning on making more on this blog and in my studio to dig deeper into the various beautiful discoveries to be made in this chapter of life.

Anyway, after reading a bit more into vision boarding I decided to make my first electronic vision boards with the intent of my mojo words from 2012 and 2013.  I Googled my theme words from 2012 and 2013 and hit the "images" button in the search engine and collaged the images that appealed to me in the iOS App: Diptic.

2012: Thrive Vision Board

Can't you tell 2012 was all about digging deep, thriving roots after 2 years of being nomadic?  Lol.   I was attracted pictures on google images that were all about foilage.

2013: Engage Vision Board

2013 is all about connection and vitality within the concept of engagement

All Things Lucy and Ethel....the names of my new stretchmarks

And the 3rd Trimester welcomed Asher and I with it's magical symptoms this week:

heartburn, backache, and oh yes more stretchmarks!!  The new stretchmarks are named Lucy and Ethel.

I notice myself starting to feel extremely armored to life when I begin to focus on material objects.  I am just like my father in this way.  Tonight my ipad screen cracked and I spent way too much time figuring out how I am going to get through work in the next week without that damn tablet while it gets fixed.  That is usually the sign when I have to pull back from my materialistic neurotic mental ramblings and read something that reminds me what life is all about.  This is where I can thank my lucky stars that I have trimmed my facebook friends list down to only the people in my life who I feel and process life in same manner that I do:  The deep feelers, thinkers, self-depreciating humorists and appreciators that I know and love.  So far, it is working.  Luke even viewed my page briefly tonight and said "all your friends talk about are yoga, peace, and love....hippies."  I told him that was the point.  But tonight I found this quote on another person's wall:

 When we speak of our hometowns, what we really mean is, ‘The place where my sisters and I grew up’, or ‘The place I met my first best friend’, or ‘The place where my kids were born.’ Yes, home is the landscape of people, places, and things upon which we live our life- but it is mostly about the people. That is why home can be a suburban neighborhood, or a struggling farm, or a ship at sea, or a war-torn nation. After all, home is where hearts are.”

That quote reframed my already overly active and materialistic brainwaves for the day.  You know I love to explore the concepts of home.  Tonight I needed to go back to those concepts and leave the iPad Screen Neurosis at the door.  My awesome friend Alyce reminded me of this book that I NEED to read before Asher is born.   My Name Is Asher Lev will be bought and probably devoured through by Monday morning.

The book is about a young artist named Asher who grows up in an Hasidic Jewish Family and has a growing passion for drawing and art!!  You know how there are books on this earth that I call my "soul books."  I think this is one of them.   I think every book I read right now I want to be a soul book.  Bloom by Kelle Hampton was soul book,  Daring Greatly by Brene Brown is a soul book too.  So were Angela's Ashes, The Little Price, The Weetzie Bat Books, and Everything's Illuminated.