Word "collage"?

Um ... (a-hem) ... uh ... well, I went to a class today. Two hours of Introduction to Art Therapy. We made collages. The other collages were completely "full" - if you know what I mean. There was no backer paper showing through the other ones. But mine? Well, I didn't really look at what other people were doing - and my pictures were more like floating islands of things on the white backer paper, and then I cut word and phrases out too - and those were on top - and then I took the Sharpie and wrote all over it. Lots and lots and lots of evocative words. (Silly teacher didn't have colored sharpies ... who expects collages to happen with only black sharpies?)

Anyway, I got to thinking about the Art Therapy thing. We asked a lot of questions about her career and how it works for her ... and I thought and thought and thought (and wrote and wrote and wrote) ... and I still think it would be fun to be the Art Lady. But maybe the peak I was using as a way to orient my travels isn't where I want to go. Maybe I'm about to take a different route.

I mean ... well ... I wrote all over my collage!

A very few decades ago, this would have worried me. It would have felt like "quitting" or "being flaky" or something. But now I think that it happens all the time in this life. We use a peak or some other landmark as a way of keeping our sense of direction, and then sometimes, just when we think we can see a clear path straight in and up, we look around and notice where we are. Sometimes the map just works better upside down. (With black sharpie all over it.)