A New Vision One Page at a Time

I am an unashamed magazine reader. I love them. I like the photos and the stories and the way they fit in my purse and give me something to do when I’m at loose ends or waiting for my daughter to come out of the school in the afternoon. I subscribe to at least a dozen and impulsively pick up one or two others each month at the bookstore or grocery store. There is a big basket in my living room, under a lamp at the corner of the sofa. It is usually overflowing with magazines of all kinds. I do try to read most of the publications as soon as they arrive, and I pass them along when I’m done. But, that’s the problem. It’s so hard to be done. There is always one more recipe to clip. One more story to read or re-read. One more page to add my idea file. So, you see, they tend to pile up. Recently, someone asked to have some of the back issues I’d saved. I was happy to oblige. I sorted through the stack and bagged up two shopping bags full of magazines. As she was leaving I asked what she was going to do with what I’d given her. I loved her answer. Using the pages of my magazines, she was going to look for pages and images to clip and pin to her special “vision” board. Through the pages she was hoping to assemble a new vision for her future. After she left, I thought about the idea of recycling material as well as imagination and inspiration. Why not? When I leaf through each magazine, I read the words, study the photos and often relate each with my own life. A photo of a beautiful room motivates me. A story about someone who has made a big change in his or her own life, or the life of another, inspires me. Stories of adventure and travel spark my interest. Advertisements engage me. I recycle magazines after I’m through with them. Or, when I pass them along, I ask that they be recycled when the recipient is done. But I especially like the concept of recycling ideas or, in this case, vision before the product. I can’t help it. I’m curious about the images she will clip and pin to her board. What will she see in them that I might have missed? What messages will she find that are special to her alone, messages that eluded or didn’t apply to me? It’s nice to think that she might turn a page and find a roadmap to the life she wants, and I especially love to think she started on that road in my living room.