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Highlights of this issue:
 Quotation of the Week
You don't need no license for how you be feeling.
What it is, is what it is. --- Elizabeth Cunningham in The Return of the Goddess: A Divine Comedy 
Inner Journeys with Anne Marie Bennett Integrating the Practice of SoulCollage® Into Our Daily Lives It Is What It Is The rather profound words in the above quotation are spoken by a character named Marvin in Elizabeth Cunningham's achingly wise and beautiful novel of a woman growing into her own soul. Marvin is not someone who appears on the outside to be capable of great wisdom. He has little education, a prison record, and no steady job. Yet he does possess something that allows him to be a channel for the divine to so beautifully flow through him: a deep and certain knowledge of who he is. I love this quotation because it reminds me on a clear, deep level that feelings are a part of who I am. When I get to know my feelings, I have a better knowing of who I am on many levels. And I find that the more I accept my feelings (which doesn't necessarily mean I have to like them!), the more I open up space inside me for the Divine to flow through me to others. My feelings are mine. They are part of who I am, part of my divine interior wiring. On any given day, these emotions may be pleasant/unpleasant, complex/simple, welcome/unwelcome, soothing/hurtful. But this quotation centers me around the plain and simple fact that they are mine... they are precious fragments of my soul.
May each day this week gift you with
the intensity and beauty of ALL of your feelings.  SoulCollage® ExpressionsIdeas and Challenges to Spice Up Your SoulCollage® Practice Challenge of the Week You might want to journal in response to the questions/activities that follow. Or simply print them out and set them where you can see them often. Sometimes just living with questions like these is enough: 1. I once saw a bumper sticker that said IT IS WHAT IT IS. It resonated so clearly with me that I immediately went home and printed it out in several fonts and placed it in several prominent places in our house, where I would be sure to see it every day. Do the same thing for yourself. Place those words, or the quotation above, where you will be often reminded to accept your feelings as they are, however they present themselves to you. 2. Make a list of every emotion that moves through you in the course of a day. If you're not used to naming your feelings, here's a great webpage that lists hundreds of words to describe emotions. 3. Create some SoulCollage® cards this month that celebrate one of these feelings. 4. Notice how certain emotions express themselves in your body. Do you get headaches or stomachaches when you start feeling anxious? What exactly is that stiff neck trying to tell you? Our bodies can be a tremendous friend to us as we begin re-discovering our feelings. Resources for Healing can be a start in helping you identify your emotions based on what is happening in your body. There is a link to a good article at the bottom of that page as well.
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Our Next Tele-Class SoulCollage® as Prayer, with Catherine Anderson SoulCollage® Facilitator in North Carolina.  In this tele-class, Catherine will guide you through simple exercises
that will enable you to hear and record the prayers you have already captured in visual form in some of your SoulCollage® cards. Using SoulCollage® cards you have already made, you will create prayers that allow you to become more aware of the blessings in your life as well as prayers asking for help from your Higher Power.
Catherine Anderson has been a SoulCollage® facilitator since June, 2004. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where she teaches SoulCollage®, Creativity and Photography workshops. She is also a partner in the business Whole Brain Consulting, an organization whose mission is to bring creativity and intuition into the business world. More information is available on www.catherineandersonstudio.
Save the
date now.
All of our tele-classes are FR*EE for members, always! And remember, don't worry if you can't attend... we'll be recording it and you can listen to it anytime in your Member's Only Audio Library. We will give you the phone number and access code to call in that week's issue of Soul Treasures. Upcoming Tele-Classes and Presenters: January 2010 - Awakening Your Muse, with Jill Badonsky, SoulCollage® Facilitator and author (among other things) in California. Wake up your New Year with this joyful, fun class! We will awaken, tap into, and cultivate the personas of creativity and imagination that can serve our resourcefulness s well as our ability to experience joy. Be ready with your journal and a favorite pen to be guided by a few of Jill Badonsky's The Nine Modern Day Muses 
along with the Creative Muse Archetype in this journey towards authenticity and creative confidence.
Date and time to be announced, please stay tuned!
MidWest SoulCollage® Facilitator Training April 23-25, 2010 in Jordan, Minnesota  Registration will open in November for Anne Marie Bennett's next facilitator training, to be held at Maureen Carlson's Center for Creative Arts in Jordan, Minnesota, about 20 miles southwest of the twin cities. This training will begin at 3 pm on Friday April 23 and end at 2 pm on Sunday April 25. Save the dates now! |
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. In this small book, intended to speak to Buddhists as well as non-Buddhists, one of the world's most beloved spiritual leaders simply and clearly addresses the concerns of modern life and the need to balance spiritual and material values, and to create harmony and energy in life.
, by Gail Godwin. What is the heart? We know it as not only the beating thing in our chests that sustains life, but as the wellspring of all faith, hope, and love. In this remarkable book, critically acclaimed author Gail Godwin takes us on a breathtaking journey that spans the history of human civilization, combining myth, art and religion to understand how humans have conceived of the heart through time. From the first valentine to the first stethoscope, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Buddha, from the heart of darkness to heart-to-heart talks, Godwin weaves her own stories of heartbreak and hope through it all. 
