Try a collage

August was a month of whistling, whooshing winds and hard rain that made us pace up and down our homes wondering about what we could do indoors. What do you enjoy doing?  Ask yourself that first. I enjoy working with my hands. I can make jewelry, knit, crochet, sew, embroider, paint. I consider myself a craftswoman, a woman who works with her hands.

But wait, every night I read and every morning I write. And once a week I write this column though I will admit there are days, like today, when I don’t know what to write about. You can also say that reading and writing are hobbies of mine. Once when I was working and had a salary I couldn’t go to a bookstore and emerge without books. Now that I’m not working anymore and live in a condo I just download books or I poke around second-hand bookstores to look for titles I can buy cheaply then pass on to another group of friends who also like to read.

The second-hand bookstores are a wonderful source of books and magazines. All right, they are used, old, but when you’re retired you don’t have to read about current events (unless you’re interested) anymore. You don’t make Easter eggs or join Halloween parties anymore. So what if you’re reading a magazine dated April 2014 with Easter eggs on the cover in August 2015?  You can get new ideas for next year or you can just enjoy what you’re looking at. The important thing is you enjoy what you’re doing, what you’re reading, what you’re writing, knitting, crocheting, sewing, cooking, baking, painting. The important thing is that you have a little time entirely for yourself – without husband, children, maids or pets — and you’re doing something you really enjoy.  This builds up your spirit, makes you a better person, gives you more energy to make you survive whatever happens next. Believe me, something will happen next. You just don’t know what it is right now.

If you like to read magazines, then may I tempt you to do collages? You will need paper, either plain bond or any paper you may have lying around, scissors, and paste of glue or scotch tape. Now ask yourself — how do I want to look?  Keep this question in your mind as you scan through your magazines.  Cut out any pictures that seem to give you answers to that question. Try not to get too literal. Just cut out pictures that appeal to you. Some of them can have words. For me, I have a clipping that says happy inside. Another that says always something new. Another that says A new day every day. And My mother always said!

Then I saw the photograph of Mia Farrow wearing a tobacco caftan over a tight pair of blue jeans tucked into beautiful brown boots. I really liked her style. It spoke to me. So I cut that out too. When you feel you have enough pictures and quotes you paste them together on your piece of paper. You choose your style of pasting.  Sometimes you paste the picture in the center with all the little quotes and other pictures — of hairstyles, make-up, rings, cute puppy dogs scattered around. Me, because I am admittedly eccentric, I like to paste pictures tilted. Quotes equally tilted in different directions. All sorts of little things that make me enjoy the process of pasting up my collage. Keep working on it as long as it makes you happy. You must enjoy doing this.

When you’re finished you can do what you want with it. I put my collages in a three-ring binder and every once in a while when there’s a thunderstorm or a real typhoon outside, I take out a pile of magazines and set them on my dining table with my scissors, paste and paper. Then I ask myself a question like — how do I want to look when I’m 80? Then I start leafing through the magazines looking for things that reach out to me. Cutting them out and setting them aside until I feel it’s time to paste. When I finish, it goes into the binder again. After a while it’s fun to revisit, to remind yourself of what you thought.

And your questions don’t have to do with how you look. You can ask any question, then do a collage and see what it tells you in the end. It’s a neat way of communicating with your subconscious.

 I may not dress like Mia Farrow but I have my own style. I find I like myself better now. I don’t care if I’m fat or thin. I find this making of collages helps us accept that we are not perfect, we have flaws but we love ourselves nevertheless. We have to love ourselves otherwise we will not know how to love other people.

Next time it rains, try to make a collage.  It is fun.

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