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