Scraps of All Sorts

This is a collage I made with the scraps that were left on my work table.  The top of a bottle of wine, a piece of french text and two torn scraps of papers in exactly the shape I found them patiently awaiting their next mission.   Most probably, the waste basket.  The background is in itself "scrap" paper.  It was a discard used to clean my paint brush.   We who are afflicted with the love of papers of all sorts may not find this out of the ordinary in any way but many of my "normal" friends are quite puzzled with the kind of "waste" I collect on a daily basis.  Who's to say what is worthy of keeping and what is not?  We are each our own master in those respects.

In my morning meditations and readings I found this little gem who's gentle grace  will color the rest of my day, (with lots of practice, of course):

What if we set out every morning with curiosity,

with the intention to notice

as many opportunities as possible?

Would it not be like reading the world

as a holy book~a Lectio Divina of sorts,

that ancient practice of spiritual reading?

Every day we could be pouring over

the unfolding of new and possible worlds.

There are innumerable, small opportunities

to be helpful, attentive or kind.

Taking up these opportunities,

would we not come to know that we are

a living part of the infinite story?

Gunilla Norris

A living part of the infinite story.  Could a simple life be much grander than that?  "Scraps" and all.  Each a necessary part of the whole.

Comments

[K a b l o o e y]

I like the notion of setting out each morning with curiosity and the intention to notice as many opportunities as possible. Sounds like the way my daughter charges through life.

[Connie]

I like the idea of slowing down enough to have a little talk like that with myself every single day. And that's just it -- slowing down with gentle reminders.

I, too, am a scrap saver. Ya just never know . . . when voila! magic appears. Looks like it appeared for you.

[Kathleen Botsford]

Kablooey, if we could just recapture the innocence of childhood....AND the Moochieisms!
Connie, Don't ya just love when the "trash" turns into "treasure"? And gentle reminders...can we ever have too many?

[Laura Hegfield]

Hi Kathleen,
This makes me think of the "remnant" series of tiny collages I created a few years ago...all from scraps my students left on the floor and table after class-the pieces deemed not worthy or useful for their own work. This is from the side bar of my blog where a few of these collages can be viewed in a slide show. "My intention was to find the intrinsic value in each remnant...(because)...Often the beauty of an individual person goes unrecognized until it is revealed in the context of a relationship; the same is true of colors, shapes and textures."

Every scrap is infused with potential, in my world.