Focusing on the SEven Wonders of Your Life by Joyce Schwarz

Do you take time to appreciate the wonder of your own life? Are you grateful for this miracle called living? Many people ask me to analyze their vision boards and see what they can add that might be "missing" or that can make their boards serve them better. One of the most frequent items left our is thank for gratitude for being alive!

A great way to inspire yourself is with the "7 Wonders" activity. Add it to your repertoire of weekly and monthly inspirational projects. The definition of "wonder" that applies best here is "to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe; to marvel." List the seven wonders in your life. I'm not talking about material stuff but the states of being that inspire you, that give you a sense of purpose and meaning and bring joy.

Artist Shana Dressler, who created the "Seven Wonders of the World" vision board affirms my belief that verbs move not only a sentence forward but our lives as well. Dressler's seven life wonders are all verbs. They include: to dream, to dance, to sing, to inspire, to explore, to love, and to serve.

WHAT ARE YOUR 7 WONDERS?

Try to make a verbs-only list for a more Zen-like approach to looking beyond the stuff in your world! Use the phrase: I am grateful for the ability to _________________

Fill in the list below.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Need help? My personal 7 wonders are: write, travel, play, vision, see, hear, discover. If you can't list seven, try starting with two or three. They might be 1) practice the law of attraction 2) be positive 3) have an attitude of gratitude. See, it's getting easier by the minute.

7 WONDERS variations: Try these as well.

* List the 7 wonderful experiences you had last week.

* List 7 people you are grateful to have in your life.

* List 7 ways you are making a difference in the world.

Hey y'all I'm going to take some of these suggestions when I collage with the kiddies today. I'll let you know how it came out. Have a blessed day!

5 Tips for Collage Scrapbooking

I found thiz on the internet and I wanted to share it with you INJOY! "I wanted to give you some tips that you could start following to really help improve your scrapbooking. I know that this sort of thing is really “art” and I can’t really tell you how to do it right because there isn’t a right way. I think the important part of having a collage is to tell a story. You don’t necessarily have to tell a story about an event or something like that, but you can tell a story about who you are or who your family members are. It’s really up to you on what you do. I have some tips that you can follow to really improve that actual scrapbook and make things stand out more." Custom Rubber Stamps You might not be aware of this, but you can usually contact manufacturer of rubber stamps and get your own custom versions of it. Typically you can get your family member put on it or do something interesting. Put a logo of your favorite team or anything really. It’s your choice what you decide to make the stamp look like, but it is something that you don’t often see inside a scrapbook. It can really add some depth to the whole look and adds a unique quality to it. Song Lyrics I don’t know about you, but I often associate feelings with songs I listened too during the time of the event. This can be an important thing to put in your book because it just brings back the feeling. Slap some of the lyrics up on the page and it helps show that you were in a specific mood during that time. Acrylic Paint This is something that most people don’t have around the house, but you can do pretty interesting things with it. You can create metalic, bronze and even earth tone looks to your pages with it. All you have to do is use it as the background and things will really stand out. You can always use the most appropriate one to get the point across. Strong Glue I know that you’re going to feel like using glue that school kids would be using for some sort of arts and crafts, but that stuff really doesn’t last. You’ll notice a month after you put something in the scrapbook, that things will be falling off the pages and you could very easily lose pictures. A strong and long lasting glue can be purchased at any collage scrapbooking store and will insure that things will stick for years without any problems. Age Your Photos This is an odd technique that a lot of people like to use. I think it helps if you want the picture (not the contents, but the physical picture) to seem older. What you do is dip a corner or something in tea and let it sit for a while. As it dries out it will start to look like a really old picture.

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Collaging with the kiddies at Free Arts for Abused Children

Simon said, as he scanned the cut out pictures of cats, kids smiling, big words he didn't know or understand and a merger selection of dogs, "I don't like cats I wanna dog". Here they are I chimed in, look at the pug with the pushed in nose isn't he cute. He quickly took it from my hand and zealously smeared the back side with glue and slapped it on the blue construction paper. Sometimes its just a small opening that leads to more small openings. Whatever they want to share its okay whether its big or small, my role as a volunteer is to be their with no prescribed agenda to "fix" their problems. We all just surrender to the creative process of collaging and see where it takes us. However, their are many times in the area I collage, where their are side conversations going on between lawyers, child advocates, parents, other family member and guardians. A ten year old Latina girl and her four year old sister said after over hearing their conversation, " They shouldn't neglect their child like that". I said, your right that is very unfortunate and we continued to collage. I could see the mis-trust in her eyes, I knew their was a story but I didn't pry. She said, "I have my other collage I did last time you were here", really I said. I post mines on my wall at home. You do her eyes getting bigger, I'll think I'll do that too at my foster family's house. You see collaging is not an escape from life, but it is a window of opportunity to let the sunlight of creativity shine through the uncertain darkness. Art heals this I know!

My Vulva Birthchart

Last year a Sista from the Temple of Wombn group I'm in did a Vulva Birthchart reading for me. It waz very inspirational because it aligns so much with what Spirit had been downloading through me. In it she states, "Your path is a Sacred Arts Keeper, you are one of the ones who bring alkhemikal change for others through art. I’m sure this is not news to you but an affirmation. Your vulva juices flow abundantly by manifesting from within whatever jewels of creative vision your dip into the cauldron brings forth. Your vulva gift is to bring down into expression healing visions for others and yourself." She also mentioned about possibly working at Sacred Arts type of museum. I've never really thought about it, but then I never thought I'd be facillating collage clazzez either.

She also used the term panssexual to describe me saying I'm here to make love to All NTR's(Gods) creations.This iz definitely me boundless, unlimited Loving not in any way cutting myself off from lovebeauty in a rock, person, animal, picture, flower, star etc.

She also said, " .......If you haven’t learned how to drum or play another percussion instrument, you should and take others into shamanic trance with you!". The funny thing iz I have two drums one that I bought in Sedona and another one I bought last year while on the Ocean of Gratitude Cruise and a third one I just recently bought. When she said I could take others in shamanic trance with me it sparked a memory from that cruise. We were all outside on the top deck, I believe their waz a lunar eclispe going on and a drumming circle had been planned. Everyone waz given drums to play, some small, some medium and some large. I sat down on the outside of the pool with the drum in between my legs. We drummed and drummed, one, two, three drops of water came down and suddenly a rain shower poured down. Everybody ran for cover underneath the bar and other surrounding areas, except me. I don't know what it waz but the rain ignited me even more to drum. Joy and bliss continued to wash over me az I played like I waz in a trace. Well, after several minutes the rain suddenly stopped. I got up dripping wet and walked over to the counter to get my dry shaw to drape myself with. The drum teacher came over to me and thanked me profusely for keeping the drum circle alive and not stopping. She said some other words but in her face and eyes waz such a bright beam of love and appreciation that it kind of startled me . I mean it seemed pretty natural to keep on drumming so it didn't seem like a big deal on my part. Others came over with a similar look in their eyes to thank me, but I couldn't fully receive it because by that time my full ego personality had returned. Her sparked me to remove the dust from my drums because I love playing. Who knows maybe I'll even take a drumming clazz! The best part of having thiz reading done waz the outpouring of love vibrations I received by her from Being/Doing what she loves. When we Be Love while doing what we love it opens up whole new worlds of possibiliites in the giver and the receiver.

Collage site to inplore

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"...the principle of collage is the central principle of all art in the twentieth century." -- Donald Barthelme (1931-1989)
''l'art pour l'art.'' -- Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (1767–1830) also attributed to Théophile Gautier (1811–1872)

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