These pages are dedicated to my soul sisters of the Healing Through Art program at Grace Baptist Community Center in San Jose. We laughed. We cried. We colored outside the lines. Soul Searching is a combination of my collages and diary entries. Nothing has been edited for I find you cannot edit real life and still call it Real or Life. Why both pictures and words? I found in my darkest times, I often had no words for what I was feeling. I began collaging on a fluke about the time I developed insomnia. In those barefaced hours with no defenses, the images poured out. I didn't question. I didn't analyze. The pictures formed themselves. Horrible pictures. Bad things happening to good girls. However, by the time the picture was finished, the bite had been taken out of that particular demon and I was then able to verbalize my feelings. Healing is not a neat and tidy process. It is not a straight line with a beginning and an end and then one day you're through. Finished. I am healed. What's next? Everyone has to find their own way of healing. Soul Searching is my way. By honoring the road I've been on, I bring closure to my grief and rage. Depression no longer defines me. I am set free.