Soul Treasures   Discovering the depths of our precious inner beauty through SoulCollage®   KaleidoSoul's Members-Only Weekly Newsletter   Issue #56      April 23, 2007 Special Note: This is not a free newsletter. If someone forwarded this issue to you, please consider subscribing yourself by clicking here.   Quotation of the Week We can't all be stars, but we can each sparkle.                                                         --- ad seen in catalog Inner Journeys with Anne Marie Bennett Integrating the Practice of SoulCollage® into Your Daily Life Do What Makes You Twinkle! Several months ago, my Primary Care Physician moved to Pennsylvania, so I shopped around for a new one.  Finally settling on a woman doctor (let's call her Dr. J) a few miles from my home, I made an appointment for my annual physical. As we chatted, she studiously took notes on a laptop computer, hardly making eye contact.  I noticed this immediately, and felt like she wasn't really paying attention to me.  In the course of our conversation, she asked me if I exercised.  I told her that I really liked to swim, although I hadn't been to the YMCA pool in several weeks for various reasons.  I also talked about walking, and about using the treadmills at the Y. After the physical exam, she recapped what we had discussed during my visit as far as some actions I needed to take: lower my cholesterol, get a blood test, fill the prescription for my allergies.  "Oh, and I really want to see you start swimming again," Dr. J. said with a smile as she snapped her laptop shut and shook my hand on her way out of the office.  "You really twinkled when you talked about that." I had to grin as I shook her hand.  Twinkled?  A medical doctor in a white lab coat actually told me that I twinkled??? But I thought about it later.  She was absolutely right.  Swimming IS one of the things that lights me up inside.  And she WAS paying attention, or she wouldn't have noticed this about me. Because of this conversation with my new doctor, I'm back to swimming at the YMCA 2-3 times a week again and it feels wonderful.  I'm also recommending Dr. J to assorted friends and family members! P.S. I can't help thinking that it would be a very different world if medical doctors prescribed "Do what makes you twinkle" more often. Reflection activities of the week: Close your eyes for a minute and see if you can remember the last time you felt all lit up (sparkly! twinkly!) on the inside.  What were you doing?  Who were you with?  Where in your body did you feel it?  Open your eyes and make a list of things that make you twinkle.  Then make a commitment to yourself to do at least one of those things this week.  If you want, make SoulCollage cards for all of the parts of you who do things that make you twinkle. SoulCollage Expressions Idea of the Week  Have a SoulCollage Pajama Party!  Invite some of your friends over and show them how to make SoulCollage cards if they don't already know. Play some fun music and dance if you feel like it!  Why do 9 year olds get to have all the fun of sleepovers?  We can do it too (and if you don't have a space for everyone to sleep, just send everyone home at midnight. Question of the Week How can I interpret a SoulCollage card if I don't have any idea what it means? The shortest answer to this is: Trust the Process!  Just jump right in and begin.  There's an e-book in your Kindred Spirits Shop that you might find helpful: How to Interpret Your SoulCollage Cards. It's only $6.00 because you're a member.  and it's filled with practical ways to get started, particularly with cards that are baffling you. Soul Friends The voice of a different Kindred Spirit each week! Editor's Note:  Our Soul-Friend-of-the-Week was not able to get her story to us in time this week, so we are reprinting the story of our very FIRST Soul Friend from the April 3, 2006 issue of SOUL TREASURES.  Thanks Fran! Fran Pullara Redondo Beach, CA Hello Kindred Spirits! I am a 68 year old partially- retired educator who lives in a little bit of heaven-- Redondo Beach, California. Writing and journal keeping have been life-long passions for me, and I have been a consultant for the National Intensive Journal, Ira Progoff's in-depth journal-keeping process, since 1984. I have also had ongoing monthly drop-in journal groups since that time in my home, which I had been preparing to transform into a healing center and occasional spiritual bed and breakfast. As it synchronistically turned out, I gave a home to my two older grandkids instead and have back-burnered Sanctuary Center until my grandson graduates from high school in 1 1/2 years. I've long pooh-poohed my artistic ability, but about 8 years ago I began to create collage art as another way of expression to enrich my writing. I was (and still am) working with a Jungian art therapist spiritual director and during this time, I decided I wanted to also consider being a director and I attended Mt. St. Mary's Center for Spirituality's three-year spiritual direction program. I was certified in 2002. About three years ago, I saw an article about SoulCollage® in Somerset Studio Magazine, a paper and rubber stampers resource guide and immediately purchased Seena Frost's book. It was the perfect way for me to express myself artistically using depth psychology.... and I guess one could say I became obsessed. I took my first hands-on workshop last spring and completed the SoulCollage facilitator's training last fall with Seena Frost in Santa Cruz. At this point, I have more than 100 cards in the four suits, and am beginning to express myself further in a Dreams suit as well as a Prayer suit. I carry my cards in two nice canvas totes, and whenever I have spare time, I go through piles of magazines and recycled art books that I acquire from the local libraries and from friends who save them for me. I often feature cards and write about them on my blog, Sacred Ordinary and several people who have found my blog, tell me that they are also SoulCollagers now. SoulCollage is yet another tool in my personal self-help toolbox. It helps me to transcend my busy, human-doingness life, at least sometimes. SoulCollage has become one of my spiritual practices. I draw cards for personal readings nearly daily, and I work on making cards at least four hours per month. The beauty of SoulCollage is that anyone who can use a pair of scissors and can thumb through magazines for images is capable of being a SoulCollage artist. It's a process you can begin to use immediately after you read the book and/or take a workshop. It's an intuitive process and I stress that there are no rights and wrongs. What I tell people who write with me, and what I tell SoulCollagers in my groups, is that we just have to give up our comparisons, judgments and our need to understand.  Everything slowly reveals itself. Here are 2 of my favorite SoulCollage® cards: Amaria Council Suit I am the one who has long accompanied Fran on her journey through life and when she needs to get perspective on life's joys, sorrows and get new perspectives about old issues, she calls on my wisdom and guidance. Note from Fran: Amaria came to me more than 25 years ago as an inner wisdom figure when I was staying at La Casa de Maria in Montecito. I often dialogue with her in my journal, and glue a small copy of her card in my journal prior to our dialogues. The Prince & the Showgirl Committee Suit We are the ones that Fran has carried in her heart since she was a young girl as the ideal of romantic love.  We are the ones who she and Ray could never begin to be like, but even today, though long-divorced, Fran likes to think that this kind of love can exist. Kindred Spirits Member News Making the most of your KaleidoSoul Membership  Keep track of all of your member benefits on the Kindred Spirits Home Page. If you ever forget your Member's Password, just email annemarie@kaleidosoul.com  There's a BRAND NEW E-BOOK by Anne Marie Bennett in your Members-Only KaleidoSoul Shop. It's all about doing Readings with SoulCollage cards, a topic that everyone wants to know more about.  And it's 50% off... just because you're a Member.  Read more about it by clicking on the book cover to your left. Top Ten Reasons To Sign Up for KaleidoSoul's September Retreat: 10.  September in the Berkshires is sooooo              beautiful. 9.  You get to spend hours and hours making            SoulCollage cards with other Kindred            Spirits. 8.  Karen Mann is going to be there. 7.  The Blessings Bonfire will bless and uplift you. 6.  You deserve a weekend for your creative soul and your inner child. 5.  It's totally affordable AND you can spread out the payments. 4.  The food at Spirit Fire Retreat Center is home-made and out-of-this-world. 3.  You save $30.00 off of the full price...just because you're a Member. 2.  No cooking or cleaning up after anyone else for three days. 1.  Connecting with other SoulCollagers will feed your soul.   More details. P.S. Did I mention that Karen Mann is going to be joining us, all the way from Melbourne, Australia? Upcoming Tele-Playshops May: Round Table Discussion: SoulCollage Card Making Discussion Moderators: SoulCollage Facilitators Anne Marie Bennett & Cheryl Finley This tele-playshop is going to have a different format.  Cheryl and Anne Marie will be facilitating a round table (more like "round the world!") discussion on the many different ways to make SoulCollage cards.  We'll be operating from a basic outline and letting everyone have time to share ideas and suggestions, tips and tricks.  Date: Friday, May 18, 2007 Time: 8 pm  EST Save the dates now. The tele-playshops are FR*EE for all members, always! We'll send you the phone number to call in upcoming issues of Soul Treasures. And remember, don't worry if you can't attend... we'll be recording them and you can listen to them anytime in your Member's Only Audio Library.         SOUL NOURISHMENT  Books, movies, music, & websites to support your inner work as you dive deeper into your soul.... Books: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer.  Meet Oskar, the 12 year old main character of this intriguing new novel.  Oskar is intelligent and imaginative beyond his years, full of curiosity and new inventions that the world surely needs.  His father died in one of the September 11 attacks, and Oskar has found a key in a mysterious envelope with the word "Black" written on it.  It is now Oskar's mission to find the lock that fits this key, and to do so, he begins a wild journey that has him meeting every "Black" in the New York City phone book!  I love this book because it approaches grief from a very real place, and also because it touched me with humor and tenderness along the way. A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story, by Jean Houston. The author is a renowned psychologist and pioneer of the Human Potential Movement (and she is also one of Seena Frost's teachers!).  This book shows us how we can discover the mythic elements of our own lives, and how our personal mythology fits into the story of the world.  She shows us all of this by sharing her own personal story. Fascinating resource that will inform the work you do with your SoulCollage Council Suit of Archetypes. True Colors: A Palette of Collaborative Art Journals, edited by Kathryn Bold.  This book is a great place to go for inspiration for your art journals and your SoulCollage card backgrounds. Using a wide variety of color themes, this book has page after page of inspiring work from 15 collaborative artists.  The many images are beautiful and inspiring, and you'll find new ideas each time you open the book. Websites: Conscious One- I'm STILL exploring this one... and I discovered it a few weeks ago!  One thing I've found are their Wisdom Flashes (short little colorful & inspiring slide shows with music) ... and here's a cool one by Loretta LaRoche called Life is Short, Wear Your Party Pants!  There's definitely a SoulCollage card in there somewhere for me, how about you?  It only takes a few minutes to watch this little slide show, and it's guaranteed to brighten your day. Awakening Artistry- Beautiful, abundant site of Tama J. Kieves, author of This Time I Dance: Creating Work You Love.  Lots of great resources and information for creative, soul-full women, like you! Josephine Wall- Mystical art from a uniquepainter in Surry, England.  Some of these will certainly inspire SoulCollage cards for your deck. Brought to you by KaleidoSoul Spinning the fragments of your world into wholeness and beauty through SoulCollage® Published by KaleidoSoul.com and Anne Marie Bennett. Please do not reproduce or forward this newsletter in any way. Inner Journeys, copyright 2006, Anne Marie Bennett All rights reserved. To give us feedback, we invite you to send a reply email to this newsletter.