Scrapping to Freedom

By:elizabeth w.

I have discovered another name for scrapbooking – freedom. Yes, I realize this may sound weird to you, but for me, learning to scrapbook helped to save my life. Five years ago I was suffering from post-partum depression. Even though I had been put on medication, I was still lost to myself. A dear friend noticed this loss and threw me a life line called scrapbooking. She introduced me to some of her best friends, her finished scrapbooks. I was in awe as I slowly turned each page, she had made beautiful pieces of art, I could never do this. She assured me that it wasn't hard to do, all I had to do was sit back and relax, she would help me with everything.

At first I took baby steps, I would go over to her house once every two weeks and just sit and watch her work, or maybe I would actually take some of her pictures prep her pages for her. I gradually started getting braver bought some paper, scissors and adhesives, and actually took pictures of my own over to her house and worked on my own scrapbook. I began looking forward to my time away from my family so that I could spend it with my new ‘family’ of scrapbookers.

Oh what joy I felt, I was able to be me, and express myself onto paper, and eventually I regained my self-assurance, confidence and dignity that I had lost in that vast sea of depression. Even my husband noticed how much scrapbooking was improving my emotional and physical well being, he will rearrange his schedule so that I can scrap child free.

So being able to scrapbook is one of those inalienable rights that the constitution mentions. For me it ranks right up there with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, because being able to scrapbook helped to bring happiness back into my life.


Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Why Scrapbooking is so important, by luvnscrapn