Pieces for You

Hi,

My friend Amy Frost sent me an email recently with a wonderful question:
What would you do if you had a million dollars?
(Here's a song to listen to while you're thinking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXdFTh1yX2c)

Let me know what you'd do!

Below is most of the letter I sent to everyone in celebration and gratitude...

For the holidays, I created a huge collage (18” x 48”) called, “Pieces for You”. It’s a mixed-media piece with:

bits of cards (there may even be something from one YOU sent!), 

fabric (scraps from Bhutan), 

beads, 

photographs, 

canceled stamps (from a collection donated to me by Mollie Messimer), 

images from magazines, 

copies of old keys and other items, 

a poem, 

quotes and sayings, 

Washi tape 

and other odds- and-ends

All these I collected this past year, then topped with a sparkle Mod Podge (I LOVE sparkle!) to hold it all together. Can you tell where your piece fits in?

Use the card for:

a bookmark (do YOU still read books? I do!)

refrigerator art

inspiration for your next poem, short story or blog

artwork for your office (frame it!)

writing a note to someone else

** Tell me your idea...

The concept for this collage came as I was preparing for a few days of rest this holiday season. I’ve had a few adventures earlier this year, including trips to conferences in Alexandria, VA, and Denver, CO, as well as Atlanta, GA (for my niece, Magee's high school graduation) and Dublin, Ireland for a counseling institute I co-lead. It's been a rough past few months at my full-time job, but I submitted my letter of resignation in November -- effective at the end of my contract in the latter part of May this year. (Yay!)

In November, I opened a new counseling practice with two colleagues (www.MilitaryIntegrativeTherapies.com); it's really a continuation of what I've been doing since 2000, when I started my practice, only now I'm collaborating! AND, I finally figured out how to organize all the websites I have under my name! My new website is www.Suzan-Thompson.com. It's under construction right now, but will include the various aspects of services I offer.

I'll be blogging weekly on this site or at toolkit4transformation.blogspot.com, so check in now and again for what's new!

Here's a collage-photo of the whole collage I created:

The one complete poem in the collage (if you received it, let me know!) is called “Praying” by Mary Oliver:

It doesn’t have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot or a few

small stones; just

pay attention, then patch

words together and don’t try

to make them elaborate,  this isn’t

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.

So, with this letter, I’m sending patched words together from the collage – “Pieces for You” – that, as I was creating it, helped me remember my connections with friends and family.

Thanks for sharing yourself with me.

Yours in Magic, Wonder & Miracles,

Suzan

Waking Dream: A Miracle

The waking "dream" I had included a "visitation" by an angel (or, in Christian culture, it was Mary; Quan Yin, the embodiment of compassion in Buddhist)! 

Although I'm referring to it as a "dream", this ACTUALLY happened just a few days ago. I'm not much into "visitations" but it hit me as I was driving home that I had experienced something extraordinary.

Here's the "dream" (which is a real-life event):

     I'm driving to meet my colleague Ted for lunch and as I turn down a street, I see a car back right into another car which is parked on the street. The driver continues, without stopping. I honk my horn and grab a pen and paper to write down the license number because I see there's a dent in the car that was parked. The driver then turns her car around and pulls up behind the dented car. I'm still in mine, irritated and waiting to see what happens. 

     The driver pauses. I see she's an older woman. I roll down my window and say to her, "I saw you hit that car. You were just going to leave until I honked." She says to me, "I WAS turning around." I'm even more irritated, so I  just park my car, then return. 

     The driver is still sitting in her car when I walk back to the scene. She says she doesn't know what to do. I rattle off 3-4 steps in the process of reporting an accident (like I'm suddenly an expert -- I've had ONE in my entire life!). As I'm talking to her, another woman approaches (I have no idea where she came from!), crossing the street starting behind me, then ending just in front of me. She's a beautiful, African American woman, wearing a colorful scarf and long black coat, black skirt, top and shoes. She looks at me with compassion and says gently, "She's old. She doesn't know what to do. Help her. [And even more gently] You've started something, so finish it." She leaves and is gone in seconds. 

     I'm taken aback by her gentle tone and the contrast with my harsh attitude. I am able to shift into helping the driver briefly, then walk away.

     When I think about the incident later, after I've returned home, I realize, "Oh my God! I was visited by Mary!" I write about the event in my journal, starting with, "Dear Mary, I saw you today and I am overcome by tears of compassion...."

     It's moments like these I am deeply grateful for the guidance that just SHOWS UP when I'm least expecting it.

In Wonder,

Suzan