The Grass Angel

This week, Anne Marie's challenge at Inner Surprises is to create a SoulCollage card from a favourite quote, and when I read it, I knew immediately which quote I would like to base my card on.

Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow."
...................................- The Talmud



I came across that quote 9 years ago, when I first encountered and began the adventure that is The Artist's Way. I think this was the first book I'd seen that was sprinkled with quotes in the margins, and if Julia Cameron left me with nothing else, it was a store of marvellous inspirational quotes, including that one. (By the way, she did leave me with a whole lot more than that!)

This quotation stays with me, and comforts me. It reminds me that there is invisible support all around, and that I only have to trust and rely on that support.

The angels that appear here came from a Christmas card that came from my Aunt Nell in 2001. I've saved it, and the angels were over my bed for the past few years, waiting for me to decide where they really belonged. Well, they belong here, on this card, honouring the quote, honouring Aunt Nell, and echoing the prayer for children which I love:

"I am, O my God, but a tiny seed which Thou hast sown in the soil of Thy love, and caused to spring forth by the hand of Thy bounty. This seed craveth, therefore, in its inmost being, for the waters of Thy mercy and the living fountain of Thy grace."
........................................... (Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 177)

I think the angels represent that grace, and I am glad now to have this visual reminder for myself.

3-Card Reading

This week, Anne Marie's challenge offered to SoulCollagers on her Inner Surprises blog was to do a 3-card reading. She suggests that we ask a question and then select three cards to see what they might say to that question. I wrote my question into my SoulCollage notebook: "What might remedy the anxiety I'm feeling recently?" I selected the three cards last night, but waited until this morning to sit and journal with them. The process was very interesting, because my rational mind would not have selected any of these 3 cards as most relevant to that problem, and yet the three cards selected each have offered me something that I feel is really helpful. Here they are:



The Imprisoned, Longing for Freedom.

After writing some "I am one who..."s, this card suggests to me that I imprison myself within my own thinking, that no-one else is creating the limits which cause me fear and anxiety. It says "You can free your own mind" (and it reminds me of This Quote I read last night too)



The second card I drew was my Letting My Child Go card. This card reminded me that, now that I have released my son into the world as a caring, responsible, adult, it is ok to let him know what I am feeling. I can let him know about my anxieties or worries without making him feel responsible for them.




The third card in the reading is my Autumn Self card, and what this card reminds me of is the store of resources I have already built up, the harvest I have already made in my life. It tells me I can trust that what I have gathered in my life will sustain me in times to come.





Overall, the effect of the three cards in combination is to remind me that I can control my thoughts, that I can draw on support without making others responsible for me, and I already have many inner resources that will carry me through.