Today I spent some of the day going through old magazines so we could clear them out. I have made a promise to myself that I am not going to buy any more magazines for awhile. Every one is the same. They all promise a perfect life if I could just buy, eat, do, or wear the right things. Bah. Phhht. Enough of that rubbish.
The problem with not buying magazines is that I do enjoy cutting them up! I learned about 'Illustrated Discovery Journals' several years ago from the book Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. She says that we can learn a lot about ourselves by going through magazines and cutting out anything that appeals to us in some way, and putting it all together in a collage. I have a whole book full of these collages. I do use it like a journal, and do you know what? She was right - you DO learn things about yourself.
The journal that I kept when I lived back in Canada seemed fairly innocent at the time. Now I look at it and it is amazing how many references to and pictures of England there are! There are some things that don't surprise me - the snapshots of bookshelves full of books for example. But there are other things that do. You know, I am a lot more girlie than I ever let on in my youth!
So what did I learn during this last excursion into the land of clippings? I realized fully how much I LOVE FLOWERS! I always knew I enjoyed flowers. I have clipped out floral pictures before, but they have always been out of a women's mag. Today I had TWO gardening magazines and was astonished to find myself madly and enrapturously cutting out the pictures of the flowers. I'm not talking about pretty floral prints here. No, NO, NO. Don't throw me into Laura Ashley yet. I'm talking about big, bold FLOWERS. Happy, bold, sassy, boisterous BLOOMS! Gerbers and Sunflowers and Peonies and Camellias and Lilacs and Daisies!
I should have realized my love. After all, I have photographs of every bouquet I've ever received. I glance longingly into flower shops, and I have even been known to talk to them every once in awhile.
The photograph at the top of this post is one I took of a flower stall on Portobello Road in London. And the bottom bouquet? It's for you!! I used to hate Valentine's Day. But now I think that it doesn't necessarily have to be about romantic love. It can be about friendship and appreciation too. So I'm sending you this bouquet of flowers. I wish you love, I wish you happiness, and I hope that today you will find something that thrills and enchants you. Happy Valentines Day.
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8 comments:
I really enjoyed this post! I'm a reformed magazine junkie, only recently started clipping articles that I love so that I can throw away old magazines. I recently started rereading Simple Abundance and am looking forward to the part about the clipped picture collages--that makes so much sense.
The photos are PERFECT for Valentine's Day. What a wonderful gift! Just gorgeous. I love flowers, too, esp. tulips and gerberas, and lways treat myself to a bunch when I'm grocery shopping. They make the house look so nice!
Have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Hope it is filled with all of the things that you love!
Thanks for the bouquet, Meg! Beautiful! I'm a flower fanatic too so it's a real treat.
I've cut out pictures and put them in my journals as well as made collages for ages. You are so right about what you discover.
I recently went through a whole bunch of my journals and just intuitively wrote down all the words that came to mind when I saw the pictures I had chosen. When I was done I had some surprising insights into myself.
Happy Valentine's Day to you Megg! I send you a surge of the enormous sense of possibilities that are swirling all around you as you contemplate which project to focus in on. You are such a beautiful, thoughtful writer and I look forward to anything you write. I truly mean that. Your blog is one of the favorite parts of my day to visit.
I am the same way when i do collage- I tend to like the gardening magazines with wild flowers and rambunctious gardens, and photos of untamed books on bookshelves have also found my way into collages. I haven't done any collage in awhile and to me there is always something very soothing about them. I actually am doing a collage exercise Wednesday with my women's depression/journaling group I facilitate every week at my work. I like to look back when I am done see what has spoken to me. We can add this activity whenever we finally all meet for the first time.
Anyway, have a beautiful, lovely Valentines Day!
I love your list of the different kinds of blooms! It sounds like a wonderful line from Dr. Suess or some children's author equally imaginative. It brought such a smile to my face!
I've always been a HUGE fan of cutting things out of magazines. I too have pages of flowers, but also pretty much just anything colorful that seemed to jump off the page. I love knowing that you're a kindred spirit for me!
Have a beautiful, amazing, splendid valentine's day Meg! Thanks for the flowers!!! xoxo
Aw, thanks. How pretty!
Beautiful bouquet, Meg! And just think of all the fun you'll have with your own garden this summer! Do dahlias grow well in your area? If they do, there's nothing like dahlias for being able to cut yourself big bouquets every day and still leave plenty to make the garden look beautiful!
Thank you for such beautiful wishes for this day! For far too long, I believed it was all about sharing the day with your one true love. And though I have spent the past few hours with my absolutely incredible boyfriend, I find that I am equally as grateful for and loving towards my dear friends and family.
And I LOVE the magazine collage idea. I have stacks of magazines everywhere...now I have a creative project to make use of them. I hope you don't mind if I steal this great idea:)
I hope you are well and that you enjoyed a wonderful V-Day as well. I'm sending lots of love and hugs to you!!
Lovely pictures! LOvely post!
Flowers pop up in all my collages too...they are usually yellow and orange - colours that I hated when I was younger but LOVE now. I am a magazine freak and making collages is the only way I can part with them, then I have all the wonderful images with me still. Another thing I do is tear out the articles I want to keep and file them in folders to look at when I need inspiration.
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