While I was working on the “new and improved” KaleidoSoul website in 2010, I had a chance to look back on my life since I’d started my business in 2005. This looking back started when I began editing and re-writing the 189 pages of content that make up the heart of KaleidoSoul.com.

I found that I was remembering where I was when I wrote a certain page, how I was feeling when a particular blog entry was created. At that time, I was still using my husband's computer in his study. Two of my stepchildren were living with us and I stayed upstairs most of the time, churning out the pages, carrying my creation forward, one baby step at a time.

When I look back to 2005 and even all the way up until 2007, I realize that I had no idea how big an entity I was creating when I began building KaleidoSoul. If you’re painting a huge mural that takes up the side of a building, you can only really see the little brick that's in front of you at the moment. Except, in this metaphor, I didn't even know there was a whole building attached to what I was “painting!”

I began creating KaleidoSoul simply because I wanted a place for my workshop participants (here in eastern Massachusetts) to “land” after leaving the warm safe womb of our workshop space. After a while, people from all over the world began finding KaleidoSoul online, and using it for their own safe SoulCollage® space. Little by little, brick by brick, the community began to grow. Inch by inch, baby step by baby step, I moved forward, following that little inner voice of wisdom that guided me every step of the way.

As I pause and look back, I can see my journey more clearly. I can see, in hindsight, the value of trusting that inner voice that says, “Let's try this,” or “What about that?” or “What would happen if we....”

But right smack in the middle of that journey? I had no idea how far I was being taken. I had no idea what was really claiming me. I had no concept of the scope of what I was creating.

I am finding much value in pausing to take a breath as I look back over the last sixteen years. As I was plodding along all that time, doing the daily work, writing web pages, posting messages on the KaleidoSoul Yahoo Group (which is now the Kindred Spirits Facebook Group), and making new SoulCollage® cards, I couldn't really see where the journey was taking me.

I think this is true for all of us. Every day we put on our hiking boots or high heels (as the situation demands!) and sweep off into the details. We don’t usually see the forest for the trees, as my dad used to say.

I'm not the only one who is on this amazing journey. And I know I'm not the only one who has made huge inner and outer strides in the last sixteen years. Every one of us has come a long way, and maybe now is a good time for you to pause and look back as well.

Take some time this week to pause in the midst of your own journey. Look back over the last sixteen years of your life and see what comes up for you. You might automatically think, “Nothing's changed for me. My life is the same ol' same ol'.” But wait. Pause a bit longer. Play with these questions a bit. See what arises.

Anne Marie Bennett is a SoulCollage® Facilitator / Trainer, published author, website goddess, and two-time cancer survivor who was mentored directly by Seena Frost. In 2005, she fell in love with SoulCollage® and was inspired to use her professional experience along with web technology as a means to serve the world by putting SoulCollage® "out there" in a really big way with KaleidoSoul. Anne Marie lives in eastern Massachusetts with her middle-aged husband, one adolescent feline, and a treasury of birds, squirrels and chipmunks who keep them hopping. Her other books about SoulCollage® are available here.

Date: Monday, November 15, 2021

Time: 1pm Eastern

FR*EE for our KaleidoSoul Kindred Spirit members.

Visit this page for more info now.

For some, the topic of Journeys might be ironic in this pandemic era of limited travels. Not so for SoulCollagers! We can pursue an infinite spectrum of inner journeys with a SoulCollage® deck and a sense of adventure. Our Neters are eager cohorts who bring wisdom and insights into whatever exploration we choose. We can trace our paths through a tense two-hour meeting, a delightful experience, a years-long endeavor, or a lifetime. We can review the past, consider the present, or map a journey forward. It’s all in the cards!

At the 2009 SoulCollage® Facilitators’ Conference, I presented my first “Playing with a Full Deck” Card Game. With a life timeline drawn on a long sheet of paper, we noted significant detours, crossroads, milestones, and decisive moments from childhood to the present. Then we perused our decks and placed cards at the time points when they most impacted us, creating one or more visual storylines. There many were aha moments and new cards for our “to make” lists.

My first timeline journey was in preparation for the conference presentation. I used my own experience to introduce the exercise, sharing my cards as illustrations of the process. Mine was a foray with a defined starting point and a theme, but no destination in mind. It began with the loss I suffered before my birth; I am a surviving twin. Using my cards and notes, I wove a pathway across my life timeline with the themes of losing those I relied upon, and the blessings of a few phenomenal supporters and mentors. The story included my development of a fierce sense of independence and determination, as well as my fear of further losses. As the voyage reached the present time, I recognized a blossoming interest in requesting and accepting help from others, without hesitation or fear. This surprise destination led me to create one of my most beloved Committee cards, “Accepts Help from Unexpected Places” which spurred some further inner travels.

Whether “it’s the journey,” the destination, or a mixture of both that intrigue us, inner travels can be meaningful and enjoyable. Lifelong timeline explorations can reveal personal journeys we’ve forgotten about, or never reconstructed and savored sufficiently. Just as enticing are focused journeys, which can be valuable tools for introspection, gaining perspective and maintaining balance.

An example of a focused foray is my own struggle with patience. In my first year of SoulCollaging, I easily created cards for my impatience, frustration, urgency, focus and other aspects of my achievements and “efficiency.” Although I have a Council suit card for the archetypal energy of Patience, I still haven’t welcomed a Committee suit Neter for my patient self.

So, I recently mapped out a journey to patience. I used a placeholder for the destination of “My patient self” and constructed the journey with Neters that influence my patience level. This excursion helped me see the impacts of my family, teachers, professional life, hobbies, and dominant archetypes on the balance between my impatience/urgency and patience. I was reminded that dramatized impatience is not uncommon in my culture (card needed for my impatient mother). Unexpectedly, an animal Companion came forward with wisdom: “Hummingbird moves frenetically to stay still and sip nectar!”

My several Committee Neters that exhibit patience, such as “Animal Doctor” and “Mentor,” revealed that my patience is compartmentalized and that I am least likely to extend patience to myself. (Aha!) With gratitude for the journey, I am actively searching for images these days to create a Committee suit card “My Plentiful Patience” and to welcome that energy more broadly. Here is this journey in image form. Please click on the image to see it full-sized.

Would you like to take an inner journey with your own deck? You can invite your Neters to revisit the past or imagine the future. Wherever you choose to go, include the SoulCollage® cards that reflect energies that have been significant along the way, as helpers and/or challengers. Make note of allies and parts of you that are important to the journey, but are not yet in your deck. Invite each of the cards to speak not only about the lessons of the journey, but about how you have evolved throughout. Here’s one simple journey to consider:

Whether you travel inward to an unexpected destination, or you relish an excursion to a known endpoint, may your SoulCollage® practice provide you with magical and meaningful journeys.

Dr. Michele Manos lives in Marin County, California and is the developer of SoulCollage® Card Games and Playing with a Full Deck Retreats. She trained as a Facilitator in 2008 with Seena Frost and has enthusiastically shared the magic of SoulCollage® ever since. Learn about her upcoming virtual gatherings and courses on her webpage. 

If you are feeling sad, overwhelmed, or simply out of touch with the “holiday spirit,” for whatever reason, please join a group of tender-hearted SoulCollagers for a unique online series of gatherings where we’ll use SoulCollage® card making, journaling and readings—along with EFT Tapping, guided imagery and deep listening within—in order to move through this holiday season with more comfort, ease, and possibility. Scholarships available!

December: Feeling Safe

January: Wisdom

World of SoulCollage®- The official website of SoulCollage Inc.

KaleidoSoul - Spinning the fragments of your world into wholeness and beauty through SoulCollage®.

SoulCollage®

SoulCollage®