FIRST:  I’ve received requests from others asking if they can purchase the magnet set of Miss Gidget, done by artist Brianna Brunsell that I shared in yesterday’s post. Brianna is happy to oblige with a LIMITED EDITION available through her Etsy shop. And just an FYI, I am not an affiliate and will not receive profit – just one creative person supporting another creative person I truly adore!…and bringing a positive face to special needs dogs!

And now onto today’s journal post…

Trust the process. A phrase I hear often in my mind. A phrase I heard when I did my training last November to become a SoulCollage® facilitator. A phrase that applies to so many areas in our lives.

On the first evening of my training last fall, I took part in a guided imagery along with the other students. A meditation to see if an animal would show up, and if so, what animal, and what message might he have for me?

Horse showed up. I felt him in my heart. But I only saw a portion of him. First came his head and face as if out of the fog, slowly revealing himself to me. I never did get a full image of horse and then the guided imagery was over.

Afterwards, we journaled for a few moments capturing what we saw and felt.

The next afternoon we then collaged onto cards the image that came to us. At first I had a hard time finding just a partial portion of a horse image, but then ended up finding three images.

In the SoulCollage® process you typically work with a background and one energy, and sometimes include another object (image) if it feels right to you.

The image above is actually two energies with horse and a small child. I was drawn for some reason to put these images together with the tree and grass as the background.

Afterwards we sat with our cards we told to “step into” the image and listen for what the image might be trying to tell us. As if we were actually the image itself.

This is when you have to really trust the process. You are likely to get something you had no idea was going to reveal itself.

I realized stepping into the image that I was the little girl. I remembered when I was quite young and we had a black Lab named Toby. He seemed huge to me when I was small. I realized the image of horse, was represented itself to me as Toby’s energy.

It was discovered I was allergic to animal dander when I was a little girl. But Toby stayed outside as my dad used him for hunting. I don’t recall that he had to go away because of my asthma brought on by many things, including animal dander. I don’t think so.

But I do remember at one point Toby went to live on a farm of my dad’s friend. He wasn’t there long when he ran out into the road, was hit by a car, and died.

For whatever reason, I took that in as my fault. If I wasn’t allergic, then Toby wouldn’t have had to move away. He wouldn’t have run into the road.

So how intriguing it was that my sub-conscious for reasons unbeknownst to me really, carried a guilt about Toby dying. But I realized it wasn’t my fault and this is what this card represented for me at this time in my life.

This is what I love about the SoulCollage® process as it can help heal parts of oneself — even when you don’t even realize something was there that needed healing!

Now when I look at this card I find comfort in that I loved Toby very much and I know he loved me. And it was never my fault.