True to my life, 

my responsibilities are my own.

I make the rules.

I choose my moment to moment existence.

~~~~~~~~~~

What is my agenda?

Whatever I choose it to be!

~~~~~~~~~~

I was invited one day by a group of women friends to have lunch 

while pouring through magazines with scissors and glue.  

I wasn't impressed with the concept--

didn't seem like anything I wanted to really be a part of.

But I did go for our homemade lunch together, 

and all the materials were someone else's trash, 

which fit my criteria for a good art project, 

so I just picked up a pair of scissors and snipped away.

"Wait!"  There was supposed to be a rule to making these soul cards they told me--no words!! 

Well I"m not one to be following the rules 

so I was immediately drawn, of course, to all the awesome fonts of all shapes, colors and sizes!

I couldn't believe I was using images and words I didn't create myself.  

This isn't art, I thought.  

What is this?

Soon I became intrigued by the combination of all the words and images 

I had cut and their random and scattered placement on the table.  

I started choosing them and arranging them on a piece of recycled matte board.  

Pretty soon I was elbow deep in cut-outs and found messages revealing themselves right before me.

Card after card and more cutouts than I could possibly use,

 I aligned myself with a gourmet lunch date about once a week or two with a dear friend.  

We listened to soulful music, 

speaking few words, 

connecting over our shared passion for the creation 

of at least an 8" stack each of inspired soul card wisdom.

To this day I still have drawers of powerful cut-outs, 

ready to leap on to the page at any moment and that I thumb through on occasion just for the hell of it.

I've gifted cards to friends who have touched me in some familiar soul card way, 

and use the others as my personal deck for daily inspiration 

to remember the deeper meaning of all existence.

Thank you for accepting my humble gift on this day!