A single soul's journey progresses at it’s own pace. Our experiences bring us through a complete spectrum of emotional reactions and actions so that it is hardly a simple undertaking to stop and reflect upon our choices. At least not until after we have made them and then entertained the results. In this light, I see the soul’s journey as an adventure really. To fear it is to cheat oneself out of the gift that life is. To embrace it, makes us human, I think. By embracing life, we risk failure, defeat, loss, and grief. However, we also have an opportunity to experience love, and joy. These gifts in turn teach us trust, faith, and understanding. When the soul is free to journey at it’s own peril, life is worth living. I think we all get ourselves into trouble when we restrain our inner most callings. To me, that inner most calling is the language of the soul beckoning us forward so that we may carry on with the plan of our life.
How can such a journey be charted? How can your own personal story ever be recorded? Our lives change like the tide, and our attitudes are often in flux as we try to keep up with the world outside of us. Capturing our journey would be like trying to photograph a speeding freight train while at the same time riding inside of it! I don’t believe such a thing can be accomplished, since we cannot be an outside observer of our own life, while living our lives from the inside. That leaves us with such great potential. We can live our lives from the inside and keep moving forward at the same time. All the while we are gathering our experiences and then surrendering them to the world through our own unique method of self expression. I think that is our legacy. And while we are bound to the tracks, I doubt it would be impossible to jump them from time to time, and smell the flowers as it were, before we climb back on those oiled rails, bound for our next experience, our next destination.
My collage work captures those moments when I jump the tracks and smell the flowers. It is a freedom that is difficult to describe. If I tried to express it, I suppose I would say that such s feeling is as natural as breathing while at the same time gazing out over a field of wildflowers spread out as far as the eye can see.
I hope for those of you who create, that you will see your souls journey in your creations. Traces of your life can be found there if you look closely. And, for those who appreciate artful creations, may you find traces of yourself in the things you are drawn to.
