Behind the Art with Heather Adams

Hello! I'm sharing my last page I made with the January "Empathy" kit today. 

This was the hardest layout for me to make this month… it is very personal to me. It's hard sometimes to think about past problems and situations. Like, I feel my heart cringe when I think about what I documented on this page.

First of all, I'm going to share my journaling on this page. I put it in a pocket behind my photo.

"Honestly, there have been times in the past that I needed someone to talk to… and no one was there. When things would be happening out of our control, I wanted so badly to be able to tell someone about it. But instead I just went on with life. I don't know how I didn't explode from all the thoughts and feelings that were bottled up inside me. But, I'm glad that's all behind me now. I look back and I'm thankful things are different."

Our family went through a really rough time a few years ago… I don't feel comfortable telling the situations, but let's just say it was something that affected us all… and still does. Things are a lot better now than they were then, but my main focus on this page was documenting that I felt alone. Yes, I had my family. But I wanted SO bad to have someone to tell the whole story to. Someone who didn't already know. I didn't feel comfortable enough to talk about it to any of my friends or even a counselor or teacher. That feeling of having no one who will be there and listen to you… no one to put themselves in your shoes… no one to say everything's going to be alright. It's awful. I have told myself since then that I will not do that to myself again. I WILL find someone to talk to. I WILL find someone who will have empathy for me.

Making this page was very eye-opening for me. I don't know if I realized before that what I was missing was someone to have empathy for me. It's so comforting having someone to "feel" you and thinking about how hard it was on me in my past not to have that makes me more open to listening and "feeling" what someone's going through. Because I know it would have helped me so much if I had had that.

Just remember-- sometimes it's HARD to put something down on a page. But it helps. It helps to put your feelings into words (take your time phrasing your journaling… you want it to reflect YOU). It's healing. Remember that. :)

Alright-- well, I have talked more about the meaning behind the page more than the actual page! Originally I wanted to make a mirrored page, split down the middle since I had a selfie photo that I took the mirror. But then I thought, "Ooh, I don't really like symmetrical things on my pages." So, instead I jumped from that idea to just putting lots of different papers and tags down the middle of the page, making it more a column of prettiness. 

EMPATHY- Symbolism I used here includes: glasses (getting a better look at something), the bark flowers… they look kinda weathered (referring to old… in the past), picture frame (looking at the past), and of course the H (for my name). 

Whew-- you made it through. Yay! Thanks for sticking with me!