The Beginning: Life Unfolds

The beginning… of the second half of my life.

This was a time in my life when I started to see that the subtle awareness of my dreams and visions for my future, could reactivated and realized.

This is when I began to re-story my story.

The power of these moments are still palpable, read on and see what you notice.

First I want to share that Visual Narrative is an unfolding story, knowing who you have been and who you are can help you to choose who you will be, as you journey. This is an active happening. Visual narrative, whether in art making, image based process, intuitive traveling or dreaming, is all visioning and not separate from experience. It is experience.

Visioning is active.

Story is active.

Defining who you are and understanding the qualities that seem to be identified as yours, even through the lens of an vague emerging sense of self, is the art of becoming. This is an act of be-ing present and with equal measure offering the energy of coming forth. Becoming is a state that holds multiple perspective and is visionary. This is the action that is always present in an unfolding story, but it is not always known or well understood.

Art mirrors life, and life mirrors art. More than a reflective surface, life is an active surface. As you journey with your stories you will find the unfolding story is opening, a mirror becomes a window, inviting you to open and experience something new.

Life unfolds.

This is a strong message, a living prayer that was painted on my bedroom wall for several years…a life sized tattoo reflecting a whisper of wisdom that led me back to myself.

My own story of Life Unfolds began to reveal itself in what I call the grey period of my life.

Soon after releasing a 23-year marriage, first to separation, then divorce and several years of back pain, surgery and recovery, I was walking through the wetlands in a local park. I realized how desperately old I felt.

This sense of aged-ness coupled with the stripping of my old life had left me feeling empty. I responded in the moment to this state of mind and crumpled up a piece of paper that I had in my pocket. This was my form, nothing left. I was waste to be dumped in the garbage.

In the next second, as quickly as I could blink my eye, I saw another choice.

 

In my mind’s eye, I saw myself take the crumpled paper out of my pocket, smooth it and open it up, allowing the creases to breathe. I saw my hands glide over the paper and take each corner, carefully folding right to center, left to center. Turning edges and folding I saw myself create new form out of this paper, marked with lines and smudges. An origami ball became itself, filling with air and expanding. The paper edges shifted again, the ball opened and refolded to reveal a new form, a bird, a crane.

In that moment, with the paper still crumpled in my hand, I found a new voice coming through this time of visioning. I spoke out loud into the gray mist of that moment and said, “Life Unfolds…”.

I was stunned by the energy of this unexpected message.

I was deeply impacted by the power of my thoughts and by the numinous space that led me into a mythic moment, where connecting to a personal myth changed my life. This was a crossroads, when I suddenly knew more than before. I had engaged my personal story in a simple desperate act of truth telling, and suddenly found new clarity and unexpected movement. New perspective opened making space for the story to begin shifting, restory-ing itself and restoring my life.

I went home after walking the path and painted Life Unfolds in large flowing letters across my bedroom wall.

This phrase became my mantra for the next several years, active visioning met me each morning as I opened my eyes. It was an invitation to have faith over fear, as I kept to my journey path. It was a whisper of possibility to be realized and an affirmation of my vision.

My faith in my own ability to vision into action would lead me in powerful directions, gifting me with experiences, insights, learning opportunities and mentors. I was engaging trust, for the first time in a long time… finding value and new purpose in my life that had been missing. I connected with intuition as I journeyed beyond my edges, looking for where I had lost my power and how I was going to get it back.

This was my journey, a deep and powerful process of discovery that became my quest and revealed a pathway leading to transformative change and directing the life work that was birthed through the divine and simple truth that Life Unfolds. 

The act of unfolding, visioning and shifting into new form is the ability of the visionary, or the artist within, to act beyond the edges of ones knowing. It is the creative self who will emerge in times of struggle or readiness, to find a way to say YES to discovery, to take a risk and leap. 

 

In Vision,

 

If you are ready to take your dreams and vision in a new direction, connect with me to explore your next steps