Scrapbooks that Heal

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Most of us scrapbook the "big events" in life, birthday parties, holidays, vacations and so forth. But, how many of us scrapbook about your divorce, the death of a loved one, a disease, depression, cancer, a child with a disability. How many of us only record the happy events in our lives, but avoid the sad things, the things that show our weaknesses, our sadness, our heartbreak, our pain. There is a reason for that...those are things we don't want to face, we don't want to admit, we just don't want to look back and remember. But do you know, that facing those fears, can actually make you feel better! Trust me...it's true. A few years ago, I went through a very nasty, heartbreaking divorce. I thought I was going to die...Two years later, I met someone new, but I still had so many feelings from my previous experiance, I didn't know what to do, so I wrote about it. Yes, I really wanted to just throw those old pictures of my ex-husband, or burn them, or well...there was a million things I could think of to do with those photos', but I decided to go ahead and scrapbook them before I married this new man. I spent two weeks scrapbooking those photos, journling the stories behind those photos, and basically, getting all my feelings out that I had hidden for 2 years. I did it, and when I finished that scrapbook...I closed the book, and haven't openned it since. When I closed that book, I felt that I FINALLY closed that chapter in my life. Someday, when my son wants to know about his biological father that took off 3 weeks before he was born, I have that scrapbook to show him, with stories, names, relatives that my son will never know. They are all in that scrapbook. And until he wants to know about the man that abandoned him, those scrapbooks will remain closed, because that chapter in my life, in OUR life, is done and over and closing that scrapbook...it was the most liberating thing I have ever done. I urge everyone to scrapbook the things that you don't want to talk about. I urge everyone to scrapbook your true feelings about having a child with a disability and the struggles, I want you to scrapbook the death of that one person that meant the world to you and is no longer with you. I challenge everyone to scrapbook the hard times, because the hard times are what makes us who we are. I challenge you to tell me your hard times and ask how to begin scrapbooking them. I'm here to help you! Good Luck...and don't forget to close that book when you are done with it.