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| Upper left, close-up. |
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| Close-up. |
Untitled.
Michelle Swords.
Collage.
:::
about this piece.
I did this collage in early October. Starting in the upper left-hand corner there is a picture of fire/water which describes my constant anger/peace within myself. The picture of the leaf turns over to a picture of a 'sad' child. I loved both the picture of the leaf with holes where an insect or tiny bug had been eating away at it and thought about how my grief (Xavier was so tiny, but look at the holes you can clearly see from the grief) eat away at me. The picture of the child just looks how I feel so much of the time.
Continuing to the right there is a person looking through a door - I feel like a person looking through a locked door sometimes. I can't clearly see what's on the other side (heaven), but it's better than here.
"now comes the hardest part" "hunting for glory"
Fully Rely On God
I search for glory in this world (the world compass), but I know true glory will be in heaven. It's so hard to trust God on this grief journey.
The field of flowers represents heaven - a better place (beautiful)
" I never had a swing growing up. Before you die, you should really have a few things you never had growing up." Sunshine Briguglio
I just really liked this quote because it made me think of Xavier never even experiencing earth outside the womb.
The lemons on the bottom left-hand of the page and the pitcher full of lemons on the bottom right-hand of the page remind me that when life gives you lemons, you can only make lemonade if you have water & sugar too.
Flashback ~ I feel like this man sitting in front of a large picture with a bright warm day on it (happier times) that is in front of a building falling apart on a cold day (grief times). I don't always live in reality. I sit in front of my grief with this nice naive backdrop of happier times, but if I get too far to one side or the other i'll realize what my reality is and break down again.
The tornado shows how I seem to go through life right now, haphazard and never knowing which way my grief storm will hit and take out whatever is in it's path.
Broken dreams ~ there is a band-aid over the picture of the house with the beautiful field of flowers. This represents that even though I may look all put together on the outside I am broken on the inside, you just can't see it.
The polar bear is just my favorite animal and my car is a ford so I put those two things on there.
Continuing to the right there is a person looking through a door - I feel like a person looking through a locked door sometimes. I can't clearly see what's on the other side (heaven), but it's better than here.
"now comes the hardest part" "hunting for glory"
Fully Rely On God
I search for glory in this world (the world compass), but I know true glory will be in heaven. It's so hard to trust God on this grief journey.
The field of flowers represents heaven - a better place (beautiful)
" I never had a swing growing up. Before you die, you should really have a few things you never had growing up." Sunshine Briguglio
I just really liked this quote because it made me think of Xavier never even experiencing earth outside the womb.
The lemons on the bottom left-hand of the page and the pitcher full of lemons on the bottom right-hand of the page remind me that when life gives you lemons, you can only make lemonade if you have water & sugar too.
Flashback ~ I feel like this man sitting in front of a large picture with a bright warm day on it (happier times) that is in front of a building falling apart on a cold day (grief times). I don't always live in reality. I sit in front of my grief with this nice naive backdrop of happier times, but if I get too far to one side or the other i'll realize what my reality is and break down again.
The tornado shows how I seem to go through life right now, haphazard and never knowing which way my grief storm will hit and take out whatever is in it's path.
Broken dreams ~ there is a band-aid over the picture of the house with the beautiful field of flowers. This represents that even though I may look all put together on the outside I am broken on the inside, you just can't see it.
The polar bear is just my favorite animal and my car is a ford so I put those two things on there.
--Michelle Swords
about the contributor.
Michelle writes about her journey on her blog My World. She writes the names of babies gone too soon at Hangin' With Xavier on the Fridge.
Michelle writes about her journey on her blog My World. She writes the names of babies gone too soon at Hangin' With Xavier on the Fridge.
When I was a pg loss support group facilitator, we regularly (at least once a year) did a collage exercise with our group. We'd bring in a pile of old magazines, posterboard/construction paper, scissors & glue sticks, & ask everyone to cut & paste images that reminded them of their pregnancies/babies/losses. We'd allow about half the meeting to make them, and the other half to share & discuss. Some of them were amazing. I still have every one that I did, & it was really interesting to see how they changed as time passed.
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