simple words … and yet … these pages were a real challenge … the other pages in this journal … Harmony … Balance and Breathe … have flowed and gone smoothly … I struggled with this spread … for lots of reasons I guess …
I began by writing on the encyclopedia pages with black magic marker … letting feelings and thoughts flow … trying hard to release them to the universe … then I painted over them with purple paint … a healing color … next covering the pages with gesso as the words still showed through the paint … my pages sat for several days …
something happened very very early last Wednesday morning …
I am much more of a stay up late person than a wake up early person these days … sometimes I get a second wind and do not want to waste the creative energy … Wednesday morning I awoke with a start and flew out of bed remembering something I had forgotten to do … very odd for me to forget a commitment …
back to being up at o’dark in the morning … 5am ish … rain was pouring down (by the time it was all said and done we got a little more than four inches) … I adore the sound of rain especially from our back porch where you can stand and take it all in but not get wet …
I decided to water the potted plants on the protected porch … walking back into the house my bare right foot felt something soft … cool and squishy … oh my goodness it all happened so quickly … it felt for all the world like a SNAKE !!!! WHAT you say … I squealed/screamed out into the darkness … grabbed a flashlight to confirm what I thought I felt … sure enough it was an adult black snake making its way off the porch … slithering away …
as if saying BLACK SNAKE is not bad enough the other common name for this snake is Black RAT SNAKE … could it get any more disgusting! YES I STEPPED ON IT with my BARE foot !!!!
I am a nature girl and a nature Lover but NOT in my face or under my feet … it took a long time to lose the feeling under my toes even after washing it … major goosebumps from head to toe just thinking about it … thank goodness I landed lightly with the ridge under my toes on part of the snake body … not the tail …NOT the head oh lordy … giving it comfortable space !!! … it has taken me days to come down from this encounter … I keep looking over my shoulder … looking before I step … oh my … !!!
our young nature boy son says “he’s probably happy to be alive” … the snake that is …
here is what I am holding on to (can’t let go of everything!) … this might be like being hit by lightning … the odds are ……VERY good that it will never happen again … who would have ever thought it might happen at all … I was very lucky that he was good natured !!!!
so back to “letting go” and “moving on” … it is a process and can be complicated … I find …
I keep trying … and trying …
for these journal pages I used … paint … gesso … rub ons … Sharpie Poster Paint pens (water based) … Sharpie marker … rubber stamps … recycled silk sewn into a tag pocket … card made into a tag (thank you Eliza) … pieces of old mailing envelope … pressed flowers in tissue paper (thank you Lynn still Loving making those) … needle and pearl cotton … K&Company bee … fringe from a funky old pillow top
Note: I am submitting this post for Ana’s Friday (2 June 2011) Archive Dive theme of: AWAY
Magpie's Nest ~*~ Patty Szymkowicz 
I’m sure your snake encounter is something you’d rather not repeat….yikes!I do like your journal spread even if you had some misgivings about it…can’t tell that now….cheers,
Mary
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ooo ooky! how icky! but i like your pages!
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i let loose!
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Oh gosh, stepping on a snake – I cannot imagine. We have only slow worms in our garden and they are very shy …. normally it is just slugs you might step on (lol). Gott sei Dank for the happy ending.
Love your journal pages especially the pressed flowers, they give so much a sense of moving on in nature.
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oooh creepy!! I totally understand!! studio dog and I had an encounter with a garter snake recently, he is a nasty thing that lives in a corner of the yard, a curse and blessing. but totally creepy! glad you stepped on the right part! xoxox
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Patti, it must be Black Snake time. I found a tiny newborn just inside the basement door…called EDDIE since it seemed to have a ring around its neck. He said it was just a little black snake and its Mom was waiting outside by the heat pump for its return to nature. I don’t mind their presence under the front door stoop…just as long as they stay away from the ‘girls.’ I, too, walk around the house barefoot and have broken several toes as well as a trip to the ER to remove a large upholstery needle. Perhaps I should learn something from these experiences but barefeet seem to be natural for me.
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At least you didn’t put a picture of a “you know what” in your journal. That would not have been good.
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Having read your story about stepping on the snake, I’m covered in goosebumps and have been saying “oooooo, oooooo, oooooo” out loud to the amazement of my pooch. Yuuuuuck!!!! How wise of your son when he said that the snake was probably very happy to be alive.
Your spread is gorgeous, Patty. Lynn’s pressed flower technique really adds a touch of elegance to these beautiful and meaningful pages. Love & Hugs, Terri xoxo
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such a creepy encounter, lucky me we don’t have crittens like that overhere 🙂 You made some lovely and meaningful pages, chapeau!
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Patty! ACK! I cannot imagine stepping on a snake – just the feel of it against my foot – oh my! Glad you’re okay but that feeling would live with me awhile. I got chills reading it.
Your pages are gorgeous; the pressed flowers are amazing with this!
Love, Marilyn xxoo
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I am right with you on this one dear!!! I would have a very hard time getting that feeling to go away from me. Not only that but I would be looking right and left, back and forth every time I passed that spot from now on.
But here you are making an adventure out of it with a beautifully crafted journal page. So like you to find beauty in the horrific. Loving blessings to you dear friend. I hope to get back to the blogging world as soon as this next school week is tucked neatly under my belt.
❤ Katie
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Patty, your pages are lovely. Is this from Cat’s transfer class?
As soon as you mentioned the word snake, I got goosepumps all over!
In fact even typing that word gave me the shivers!
You see we don’t have snakes in NZ. We have huu huu bugs and spiders but no snakes!!!
However we lived in Oz for a few years and only once or twice did we encounter snakes – that was enough for me!!!!
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About two weeks ago we opened the front door of our cabin and met Jake the Snake…a 6 foot black snack…good for the environment Ken says…but I walk gingerly now when I step outside my home. Your journal pages are coming along nicely. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart
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What a story! EWWW! We have no snakes where we live. It’s too populated and too many people own guns in Kansas! It is hair raising, though.
As for your lovely “Let Go, Move On” spread, all I can say is you are a lifesaver. I have been trying to find the directions to that tissue/flower technique and had no idea what to call it. I knew I had seen it on your blog, but no amount of searching resulted in anything. Then today, voila. Like a mind reader. Thank you, thank you. Now I, too, can move on.
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the last three comments I’ve left have been right after yours, so I thought I’d say hello. I read about the snake and shivered in my bed – I cannot begin to imagine how startling and horrifying that was – a few weeks ago, while staying at my in-laws place at the lake there was a huge rat snake behind the garage – I could barely get close enough to take a picture!
maybe some spread require a lot more evolving – after all, letting go is quite a process!
best wishes:)
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Snakes don’t bother me too much, if I know they’re there. However, the freight of not knowing in the night and then to find it slithering under my toes, I think I would have to gasp and scream myself!
Sorry for your experience. Love the journal pages that derived from this though. 🙂
Hugs, Ashlyn
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That’s an experience that would be hard to get over quickly. Unlike Linda Jo, I AM surprised a snake did not appear on your page– just a tail as he slithered off the edge of the page… heehee
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what a great double page!!! simply fantastic!!!
hughs
katrin
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Oh ick!! I can’t stand snakes. I squeal like a very little girl at the sight of a snake like STICK. Sad but true. Ican’t even imagine stepping on one…barefoot. I think I’d still be washing my foot while curled in the fetal position.
Love the page though!!
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Well, I’m glad a snake didn’t appear on your page…one close encounter sure is enough for anyone (unless you’re Austin Stevens!) But oh boy, talk about getting chicken skin. I can’t imagine what that must have been like, Patty! Around here, we constantly have the threat of cottonmouths in our yards. Actually, a few months ago, I had a little snake invade my house…thank God for a Dyson vacuum cleaner…can you imagine that? Animal control rescued him (he sure was angry about being vacuumed) after they left a house 4 doors away from me and found a big old cottonmouth! I think your pages are very healing after that encounter…they are beautifully done, Patty!
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a beautiful page Patty – made all the more beautiful because of the PROCESS – the process of your life
2 things I hate: waking up knowing I’ve forgotten something AND stepping on a snake (although I never have done THAT – I hope I NEVER do!!!)
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Don’t even know what to say about the… um… well, what do I say… BUT your pages again are simply lovely and I do hope that you won’t have a negative connotation associated with them! Are you learning to press your flowers from the lovely tutorial that Lynn gave on Her Creative Spirit? Wonderful! Keep up your beautiful work, Sweetie! Love your book.
xx,
Autumn
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I so loved this post that I am ashamed to say I LOL. OK, I am hanging my head right now at the office … First of all, I know you get your second wind in the middle of the night because I get comments on my blog or email from you….. You see I am an early morning person I love that time of the day the most. However, stepping on a slithering snake at O-Dark-AM is not my cup of tea. You are a brave bunny, girlfriend, and I am so glad you got over the trauma of black rat snake, ewwweeeeee. Hugs – oh yes, did I tell you how much i LOVED your layout! WOW.
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Wow — there’s a lot of meat in this post Ms. Patty. But first of all, I have to say that you are a braver woman than I with the snake encounter. Mice — no big deal. Snakes, serious big deal!
Letting go isn’t my strong suit and I admire how you are looking at that. And of course, being you, the end result is simply lovely.
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Beautiful journaling, Patty. Stepping on a snake just isn’t in my list of things I want to do before I die! We had one on the driveway one night. DH tried to take him to the woods in a bucket. LOL! Every few feet, he’d slither out and DH would use the broom handle to put him back in. After several attempts, the two of them reached the edge of the woods. The last we heard from the black snake as he slithered as fast as he could, he was muttering: “Oh please help me get away from that crazy man who wants to put me in a bucket!”
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Stepped on him? In your bare feet? Some girls just know how to make life interesting! LOL! Oh gross me out. If you ever need this little trick tuck it away…If you are sleeping where a snake might come creeping and crawling over you, surround yourself with wrinkled aluminum foil. Seriously. The snakes won’t slither over it. When one of our children’s two “pet” snakes captured from the creek got loose in the house, you know who employed this trick. But totally switching gears….I read this post yesterday and your pages made me teary-eyed…very deep and thoughtful pages…It is SO HARD to let go…it is such a long process. I was very touched by these pages, Patty. Xo, Sue
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oooh Patty , that would be so scary!Everyone seems to have agood snake story! My mil has an outside ldy and put her hand in the washing machine to get what looked like a stocking in there…. you can guess that she got the shock of her life and promptly shut the lid.
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Wow, such a fantastic double page, your altered book seems to be beautiful.
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oooh hate snakes…..I’m not too sure what I’ll do if it happened to me….I do imagine an escape route at times… ha ha…
I LOVE these pages and I’m glad you are enjoying your AJing process…. I always love it…got to get back to soulful journalling again….
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The most elemental fear of the entire human race. Whoa! I love what you did with it . . . fear into beauty. Thanks, Patty!
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oh dear.. heebiejeebies reading that! i’m having deja vu, i think i’ve read this before but i see i haven’t commented. i was probably shaking off the willies at the thought of it (and now in a moment of empathy, i’m wondering what the snake must’ve felt…oh wait. empathy gone, back to shivers down my spine lol). i do love the sentiment, let go and move on.
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I think I’ll stay up a little later after reading that. Not sure I’ll have sweet dreams. Great post, though! And a nice moral too!
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