Number 18 - making a Vision Board

So far it has been a very different January in Rio de Janeiro, it has been cool and wet. For the first time in many, many years I have slept without turning on the air conditioning in the middle of summer! As this is the summer holiday for many, most people in Rio are not that happy with the weather. But I am! Temperatures around 25 degrees are perfect! But what do you do in Rio on a rainy day? I confess that I get a little bit lazy, even heading out for a museum seems almost too much of an effort...

Well, I have been doing some of my favorite things; reading and cooking, and dreaming about my next holiday, which will hopefully be around the time I reach fifty. But, the project must go on, and I decided to try something I have never done before: to make a vision board.

Now what is a vision board ? It kept popping up in the New Year astrological predictions (yes, I still read them, even now, when I am going on fifty!), but I really had no idea what it really was. Until I finally found an explication in an article in The Huffington Post - appropriately named: WTF is a Vision Board, And how do you make one? You can read it here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-is-a-vision-board-how-to-make-one_568be29ce4b014efe0dbaac3?utm_hp_ref=healthy-living

It sounded easy enough; get some newspapers and magazines, scissors, glue and a poster board. Cut out whatever quotes and images you like and put them in a big pile, ok, I can do that!:

And then the hard part, you organize what you have in your pile according to intuition. Then you glue it on the poster board, and hang it where you can see it every day. Well, this is what my vision board ended up looking like:

I was actually quite surprised and quite proud of the result! I ended up with quotes in the three languages I speak, and with images that make me feel good. Looking at my vision board I realized that an old dream had sneaked in, right on top of the board. Ever since I was a teenager I have dreamed about going to Machu Picchu. As I looked at the picture I decided that even if this might not be possible this year, and even if I am going on fifty, it is important to have dreams.
I also found that the vision board is a reflection of what I want for my life: contact with nature, with friends and family, with art, good food and drink, and of course time to be creative. The vision board is now on my bedroom wall, so that I can see it every day, and believe it or not: it has made me happier!