Soul Restoration Blog Hop or Better Late Than Never

Hi friends! As you might have noticed I was a little late posting for the SR Blog Hop. So, so sorry...I had it set up to post automatically yesterday morning but clearly my poor blog was struggling with technical difficulties. Anyway I am posting now in the hopes that all might be forgiven.

I was completely blown away by my experiences during the Soul Restoration workshop. It was intense, amazing, heart wrenching, cathartic, uplifting and majorly empowering. I would highly recommend this workshop for anyone longing to regain "the real me." Another session of Soul Restoration 1 is beginning April 5th and Soul Restoration 2 will then start June 7th. I will definitely be moving on with SR 2. More sharing about the curriculum and registration information can be found here.

Please check out the Brave Girls - you won't be sorry!

In this post, I shared some of my initial thoughts about the Soul Restoration workshop and a tutorial on the construction of my 'soul house' journal cover. Today, I thought I'd share some of my favorite journaling pages.

Next up in the Blog Hop is Dawn Hueser - check out her blog for more Soul Restoration goodness.

Balancing Act

I am constantly feeling behind.

Maybe it is winter. Maybe it is the holiday season. Maybe it is the abundance of patients requiring exams before the end of the year. Maybe it is the pressure to clean my house before our annual holiday party this Friday. Maybe (surely) it is a combination of all of the above...

Whatever it is, the result has been one very flustered Jenn.

Until today.

Today, I just decided that I was going to put all that nonsense to rest. Life is a balancing act. I know that I am I am getting it all done...even if I don't feel like I'm getting it all done. Now I just have to keep telling myself that! Here's a little chart I found online to help me as I go forward... (sorry but I didn't make note of the creator so if you know it, please let me know so I can give proper credit!)

On another, note - I have been really enjoying the daily prompts from Reverb 10. As I was going along, I realized that the majority of these prompts dealt with subjects that were a bit more personal than I wanted to share on my blog. I've actually been doing these prompts as pages in my art journal which has worked out really well. I like the comprehensive nature of combining all the topics into one month of journaling.

I've also been working a little bit every day on my December Daily album. I am following a similar layout to Ali this year, using her pre-designed daily overlays with enlarged photos and transparencies as the main components. I have completed days 1through 5 (although I haven't gotten any photos taken)and the album covers. I am also taking photos everyday and making little notes of the stories that I want to tell. I am taking this project in a very relaxed manner. And I am looking forward to some devoted crafting time this weekend.

A New Adventure

My Tell Your Story art journaling class with Elsie and Rachel has sadly come to an end. I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoyed this class. I have always been a journaler of sorts. In the past I've done several different types, ranging from simply making lists in my daily planner to creating very artsy and detailed layouts for my scrapbooks. But I had never committed to journaling on a daily basis.

And I want to.

One of my goals for this year is to do something creative every day. I find when I make the time to create I am more relaxed and productive in all the other areas of my life. But, I had been struggling to find a way to balance my need to create with the real life time demands. I love scrapbooking. And I firmly believe there is no one way to scrapbook. I am a "hybrid" in every sense of the word. I scrap with paper and glue. I scrap digitally with my laptop and Photoshop Elements. I scrapbook both 8.5x11 and 12x12 pages. I make mini-albums. But the stress of creating a layout - or even part of a layout - everyday was really overwhelming. My scrapbooking is very much a story driven process. And let's be honest, not every day has a story that I want to tell. But every day does bring new feelings and experiences that can be documented. I found keeping an art journal was really the perfect fit. I put much less pressure on myself regarding my journal pages than I do my scrapbook pages. Art journaling was easier and faster to conceptualize and complete for me. I am just in love with this direction in my creative journey.

So, I was particularly excited when of my Tell Your Story classmates Janel organized a 30-Day Journal Challenge through her blog. I love the ongoing commitment to keeping up with my art journal, and the added accountability of participating in a group helps keep me on target with my goals. The Challenge started yesterday - and I am loving what I am seeing in our Flickr Group!

Here are my first two pages.

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The Soundtrack of my Life

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I recently completed this journal page on 10 songs that changed my life. I love how the page turned out. Every time I glance over it, one of the song titles will catch my eye and I will instantly hear a line or two of lyric in my mind. In that moment, I am actually transported back to a different time and place. I experience the perfect blend of nostalgia and relief.

The power of memory is strong…strong enough to remind me that I do not wish to re-live any part of my life, however intense or however happy. I am content to live in the now, but it is comforting to know that with just a few notes, my past and I can join for a brief second.

Just a few days ago, I received an email from Mama Kat that contained several writing prompts. One was to write about the soundtrack of your life. I knew that this writing would perfectly complement my journal page. In the spirit of reflection, I thought I’d share this soundtrack of my life with you. These songs are all equally important and are presented in delightfully random order.

“Yesterday” – The Beatles

Yesterday,

Love was such an easy game to play,

Now I need a place to hide away,

Oh, I believe in yesterday.

I grew up listening to The Beatles. They were one of my mother’s favorite bands. It is no wonder that after experiencing my first real heartbreak at age 14 I turned to the familiar crooning of the Fab Four. This song was particularly poignant in that the words mirrored my disillusion while the melody enveloped and comforted me.

“So Lonely” – The Police

Just take a seat, they're always free

No surprise, no mystery

In this theatre that I call my soul

I always play the starring role, so lonely

Who would’ve guessed that I would have to go all the way to Germany to discover the beauty of The Police? I studied in Hamburg in 1990, the year I turned 18. It was an amazing experience, filled with exploration and freedom. I spread my wings, lived a little on the wild side…well, wild for a small town girl from Omaha, Nebraska. I might have lost my henna-dyed hair and my nose ring, but I will never surrender my love for punk music.

“Thunder Road” – Bruce Springsteen

The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves

Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays

Roy Orbison singing for the lonely, Hey that's me and I want you only.

Don't turn me home again I just can't face myself alone again

I will always think of my husband Jim when I hear this song. It is always there…in his smile, the way his eyes crinkle at the corners, how he holds me as we dance across our living room. This is the score of us falling in love.

“Wish You Were Here” – Pink Floyd

How I wish, how I wish you were here.

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,

Running over the same old ground.

What have you found? The same old fears.

Wish you were here.

I will always and forever associate this song with loss. It is bittersweet to hear even now. Although I have come through a stronger and wiser woman, I cannot help but feel the sadness, the grief of that time.

“Black” – Pearl Jam

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life

I know you'll be a sun in somebody else's sky, but why

Why, Why can't it be, Why can't it be mine?

I first heard Pearl Jam in the fall of 1991 when I started college at UNL, along with Nirvana and Soundgarden.  I was poised on the brink of adulthood and this angst-filled music resonated with the many chords of change within me. When I became pregnant and gave birth almost exactly one year later, the Seattle sound was still extremely popular on college campuses. In my mind, this particular song became an anthem of all I had left behind in choosing to have a child on my own at age 20, a decision that I have never regretted but altered my life dramatically to say the least.

“She Will Be Loved” – Maroon 5

It’s not always rainbows and butterflies

It’s compromise that moves us along

My heart is full and my door’s always open

You can come anytime you want

This just means so much more when you truly understand how love works.

“With Or Without You” – U2

Through the storm we reach the shore

You give it all but I want more

And I'm waiting for you

I could have picked nearly any song off of U2’s The Joshua Tree as this entire album made an impression on my young and fertile mind. When this album was released in 1987, I was a freshman in high school. I was just discovering my own musical tastes and U2 was like manna from Heaven. I was figuring out that I had a mind and starting to dream of the places it might take me. I was part of a team. I got my driver’s license. I fell in love for the first time. And inevitably, I had my heart broken. “With Or Without You” takes me to the highs of that time and then abruptly leaves me sobbing in my driveway, sitting in my yellow VW bug until the windows fogged completely over and my mother had to come out and coax me inside.

“The Boys Of Summer” – Don Henley

But I can see you, your brown skin shining in the sun

You got your hair combed back and your sunglasses on, baby

And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong

All it takes is hearing the first few bars of this song to take me back to summer camp, young love and feeling like I was becoming a woman. It is a heady feeling that always leaves me smiling.

“Closer To Fine” – Indigo Girls

I'm trying to tell you something about my life

Maybe give me insight between black and white

The best thing you've ever done for me

Is to help me take my life less seriously, it's only life after all

Ahhh…a young student’s anthem discovered on a college campus. If you’re over the age of 35, you know exactly what I am talking about.

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” – The Rolling Stones

You can't always get what you want

You can't always get what you want

You can't always get what you want

But if you try sometimes you might find

You get what you need

I first remember this song from my early childhood. My mother was also quite the Stones fan. I can never hear this song without picturing my mother driving with the windows down, a cigarette in hand, the radio turned up and singing at full volume with her head thrown back and a smile on her face. It fills me with a tremendous sense of gratitude and wonder and love. I am so thankful for my mother. For the love of music she fostered. For the intellect she nurtured. For the moral compass she instilled. For all the songs we sang together.

I still love the Stones. I often play this song on my iPod in the car. I don’t smoke and I can’t stand the windows being down when I drive (except when I am in a convertible, duh). But I sing at full volume with a smile on my face and my head thrown back…just like my mom. My son sits in the seat next to me.

And I can hear him singing along.

Change Is Good

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Yesterday's prompt in my art journal class was "Change is good." And it was right on track for my thoughts over the past several weeks.

I believe that very few people really enjoy change. I know there are those who relish novelty and need to have constant changes in stimuli, but I can't say that I actually know any of these people. Most people I know, particularly my family, would prefer for life to stay just the way it is, no matter how stagnant or stressful the situation. I mean, everyone gives lip service to wanting things to change, wanting life to be easier, wanting things to be better but very few do anything to make those changes happen. Making the move from wishing to doing takes a considerable amount of courage. It's like the place we know in life, no matter how difficult, is preferable to the unknown. So often, we are willing to settle for the familiar rather than embrace change.

I was certainly guilty of this kind of thinking in the past. But about a year ago, the reality finally sank in - if I wanted my life to change, then I was going have to consciously make that happen. I could no longer be a passive bystander in this game of life. I would have to move into the driver's seat. Luckily, my husband Jim came to this same place in his life at exactly the same time, although his route was quite a bit different than mine. We both had fears and issues about change...but we knew we were ready to stop letting fear rule the roost. Believe me, adopting this new attitude was not easy but it was absolutely essential to the process.


I'm still learning to see change as good. My initial reaction to change is a tightening of my stomach muscles and a brief spasm of nausea, but it resolves in a couple of seconds. And then I take a deep breath and remember all of the wonderful things that have happened for our family since we decided to live life on our terms. So I relax and smile. It's just another small step along this journey that is our amazing life.


How do you react to change?

Let me introduce myself...

Intro page 2, originally uploaded by jennhv.

So I apologize for my absence over the past week but I am have really been enjoying having Grand Master B around 24/7 and, I'll admit, it has taken some transitioning to become a fully functioning mama again. But so worth it. We had a really lovely barbecue in honor of his return home and to celebrate his accomplishments last weekend. More on this later...

I thought I'd share the introductory page from my art journal. I have been really attracted to this concept for while but just hadn't taken any steps to start. Then I discovered Tell Your Story, a guided class on just this subject. The teachers, Elsie and Rachel, share tips, techniques and journaling prompts every day for 6 weeks. I am feeling so energized in just what we've done in the past 3 days. This class is just the thing I needed, plus I feel developing a daily habit of journaling every day is both helpful in my creative journey AND necessary for my ongoing mental health.

I used this first page as a means to explore the many roles I play, issues and fears I am dealing with right now, trivia and tidbits about me and celebrating all that is wonderful in my life, this very minute. I painted the background with my absolute favorite aqua acrylic which gives it just the light and breezy feel I was trying to portray. Aqua just makes me happy. Then I taped down a piece of my personalized stationary for the journaling card. I used colored mists, chipboard, letters and a paperclip to build on the theme. I really love this.

I will be sharing some of the pages from my art journal over the next few weeks, as well as other items of crafty goodness. And I will share photos and stories of B's welcome home BBQ later tonight or tomorrow. Til then... Happy Wednesday, America.