Monday, January 17, 2011

Mapping Happiness

Sometimes it pays to NOT rip up something that you aren't happy with. Such was the case with this journal page that I started some time ago. I didn't like it in it's original guise and had been tempted to tear it out of the book and toss it. I hadn't even opened this particular drawing pad in a long time but when I did I decided to rework the page. It looked like a map to me and I wondered what it was a map of....

About the same time I happened upon a copy of a poem by John Trudell that I particularly liked. It spoke of things that I have often thought but have not, perhaps, acted upon as much as I should.

 It reads like this:
we are part of the dreamtime
happiness is one of the colors
there are shadow casters who trick us about happiness
we are taught to wish for things to make us happy
we are not taught to wish for happiness itself.
we can't buy happiness
we can't sell it,
we can't steal it
we can't borrow it
and we can't capture it

but we can create it
love can't bring us happiness
but happiness can bring us love
power can't bring us happiness
but happiness can shoe us power
on the line of what is real and what really isn't
dream for happiness
somewhere between heart and mind
the spirit of life can be seen
happiness comes and awaits dream
Perhaps it is a map to happiness after all. I'm glad I saved the page and found the map. Now I just have to follow it.

8 comments:

Ruth said...

It's wonderful - I'm glad you reworked it too!

Sandy said...

You certainly did rescue the page.

Edzellinni aka Linda Edkins Wyatt said...

oooh, I love it. and if you scanned it, printed it small, you could make atcs. yes, that IS a hint. 'cause I WANT one :-)

KZ said...

I like what you did by reworking the page and using a poem that spoke to you. Happiness is that ring on the merry-go-round of life!

taiqi said...

Lovely page. I am glad you didn't throw it out. Janet Wright

Karoda said...

I'm digging it!

Judy H said...

Love how words seem to form the edges of the land on the map.

Ilene said...

This is beautiful...the colors & hues. Lovely content that inspires calm & lightness. It reminds me of a quilt I made with batiks of similar color blends for the children & youth who grieve the death of a parent. I call it a Hope Quilt & it's a gentle way to encourage their own expressions toward healing. Thank You for preserving & sharing your work of art.

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