Inviting the New Year

Reflection on Dorian’s collage
My friend Dorian does a collage of pictures at the beginning of each New Year. He does this, I think, to invite the unknown future to come to him in the year.

I love the idea of inviting the future with all of its challenges to come to us. Most of us are afraid of the unknown and of what the future might bring to us.

I enjoy meeting with young couples who have decided to get married. They are at that place when they are not afraid of the future. They are going to journey together. They are planning a family, seeking a career, working to buy a home, and they are doing this despite the enormous problems of their country and the world. Something of that spirit is caught up in those words of Jesus, Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened. ( Matt 7:7)

We need to carry the spirit of these words into our every day.

Dorian sent me his 2021 collage which is an exciting piece of art. Instead of saying that’s wonderful as I often do, I decided to respond in writing to it. A poem-like piece of writing emerged. Dorian’s collage becomes for him a process of journaling from the visual images. Out of his creative response, many new ideas and plans emerge for him, which he will later act upon.
Now with my written response, he had a second response to his collage from someone who has some insight into his journey. He loved my response and saw many parallels in my response that echoed his own. There were things that I saw which he was not aware of. Of course he saw much more, because he had created the collage, created as an intuitive act and not as something that was carefully considered. Through it he was allowing his unconscious mind to emerge.
You may want to do your own collage in the same spirit as Dorian did his.

• A Way to proceed
• Look at the picture carefully.
• Listen to my poem as you look at the picture
• Consider making your own (see below)
  

I Tiresias see all things
I see a hand calmly reaching out to invite
what is given
the Buddha and Buddha- reflection,
timelessness stands alongside the ticking clock
through the silent centre one moves beyond time,
there is the muezzin’s call and church’s carillon
at the edges of consciousness
There is the journey inward and outward
the ying and the yang
home and away and home again
the boomerang and the egg-timer
time to leave, explore through all the senses
the taste of passion fruit and asparagus
and the lockdown pine-apple beer
there is the deep delved earth in the necklace of stones
and the exploration of the undersea
with all its mysterious beauty
from sea anemone up to mountain protea,
and all the rich forms that proteas take
the craft of the mosaic bowl
the headgear of the Aztecs
and the knowledge that comes through books.
in the background and foreground of music
there is Dante’s spiral staircase to paradise
but you must travel it with the wisdom
and dexterity of the bearded goat,
there are spiritual doors to enter,
new cities and cultures to taste
architecture to delight the spirit and invite
there is the nearby tap to turn,
and many washings to undergo
so that you will willingly
stretch out your hand to receive
all that each day brings to you.
Bob Commin 2021

Make your own Collage

Some ideas about making your own Collage
Choose a theme: The year that I am inviting to come to me in 2021.
It is an intuitive activity and not a logical brain one. Play your favourite music. Go through some old magazines and cut out the pictures that immediately appeal to you in relation to the theme you have chosen. Don’t spend too much time considering the pictures you want to add.

When you have all the pictures you want, make your collage. Use an A3 page or 2 A4 pages and arrange your pictures on them in the order you like. Then glue them to the page.
If you are doing this with a partner, once you have done it, talk about your collage to the other person and vice versa.

Then write about each of the pictures in your journal; why you chose them, what messages you think they carry for you, what are they reminding you to invite into your life in the coming days. Keep it somewhere as a reminder.

Let me know should you do the exercise.

• In Memoriam The Revd Canon Ian Halliday Eve 1933 – 2023
• Fun Poems for my Grandchildren and others
• Poems from the Cederberg
• The Inner Voice of Sound-Sarita Stern Opera Singer part 2
• The Journey of the Magi