2/28/2013

My Board of Grace

"The board itself doesn't impact reality; what changes your life is the process of creating . . . "  Martha Beck


Vision Board (page one)

Once upon a time, I reluctantly set out to complete what I believed to be a cheesy little arts & crafts project, and wound up (much to my delight), on a spiritual journey.

As a one-little-word traveler, I was prompted to create a vision board - a personal collection of representative words and images, of things or concepts, that I'd like to welcome into my life. In theory, a vision board is a poor man's Field of Dreams . . . if you build it, he will come!

I trekked to the book store, grabbed a handful of magazines (the one's with the most fun photos I could find), and headed home to cut and paste!

At some point, it occurred to me that I paid a ridiculous amount of money for magazines I was going to destroy.  I hoped the end result was worth it.

Back on task, I started through the pages, looking for images that spoke to me (made me ooh! or ah!).  Nothing!  Struggling, I reread the directions, followed the suggested links, and tried again.

This time, to my surprise, I finished with a substantial collection of words, images and phrases. I spread them out, and planned how I'd arrange them on paper. I began trimming my treasures to fit the page, but opted to tear them to fit instead.  Go figure!


Vision Board (page 2)

Once finished, I was pleased with myself, but still had a hard time seeing anything more than two fairly decent scrapbook pages.  Humph . . . I must have missed something. I photographed them, and filed them away in my scrapbook. Done!

Two weeks later while lying in bed, I had an epiphany!  The ragged (torn, not cut) words, phrases and images I struggled to mine from magazine pages, are metaphors for goodness - faith, light, love, joy, beauty, courage, creativity. 

In my brokenness, I've struggled to recognize God's blessings, often taking what I have for granted. My vision board was a celebration (my one-little-word) of goodness! In the process of creating the board, I was visualizing God's grace in my life. 

The real miracle of my vision board happened a few days after my mid-night epiphany, when I received a phone call that was so full of goodness, it flooded and mended my wounded heart. The call was an an answer to my prayers, something I thought would never happen.

It worked! My vision board worked! I made it. I prayed it. I dreamt it. It happened. And in the end, it was worth every penny I paid for it.

8 comments:

  1. Lovely, lovely vision board. And funnily enough, I used that line from Field of Dreams myself recently!

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  2. LOVE your board, the words have such impact. Wonderful :)

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  3. What a cool experience - so glad you went out of your comfort zone. :)

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  4. Your pages are beautiful, but it's your story that is truly inspiring!

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  5. I had forgotten that Martha Beck quote - I'm so glad you added it. The words and images are beautiful!

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  6. I agree with Cheri your post is inspiring. I joined OLW late so I playing catch up, but loving every minute of it. My word is "trust"

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  7. I really love your board--the phrases and words you used are so rich and so full of potential. I'm inspired by you and excited to see what this board's story will be in the next few months!

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