January 16

In order to make a collage, you have to bring together different pieces that may never have worked together in harmony before. Textured oranges and smooth blues, flowers, and random words pulled from different sentences—it takes a while to see how it all comes together. Perhaps the same is true in our own lives: it takes time to reconcile "how far I have come" with "where I hope to go." It can take time to make sense of joy and excitement when nervousness and anxiousness continue to linger. It takes energy to figure out what you're carrying with you and what you're leaving behind and letting go of.

However, what you will find when you engage in the process is that you were meant to take your time. And on the days where you are able to say, "I can see how that experience taught me something," or "I'm starting to identify a change I'd like to make," are moments where you are bringing pieces together in new ways. You are finding harmony amidst it all. And just like when you are making a collage, not every piece has to fit together perfectly before you can decide to start exploring what new things might be connecting or what changes you might like to make, even while you wait for other things to fall into place. Those small moments of recognition are worth noticing, and you can build upon them.

And one thing you will notice about maximalist collages—collages that overflow with a wide range of colors and patterns—is that, as you're making it, there will be a lot of points in the process that won't make sense because you're mixing together pieces that come from different places and times. However, just like life is filled with many days, weeks, months, and years, where so many "pieces" of one's story feel random or disjointed, a collage doesn't have to be streamlined and "perfect" to be beautiful. It can be filled with depth, layers, many textures, and elements that may not have made sense at the time, but the longer you live, and the more you allow yourself to pause and reflect on how you have been growing, the more you will find that with time, an unexpected, multi-dimensional harmony was coming to life.

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Note: I first shared this collage for this piece about courage