There are probably as many reasons to scrapbook as there are scrapbookers, and many of us scrapbook for multi-faceted reasons. I came to the realization yesterday that I sometimes use my love of scrapbooking to cope with stressful situations.

Many of my readers are aware that I live in Florida, in hurricane territory. Although we moved to Florida from Michigan in 2000, we had been fortunate enough to avoid experiencing any hurricanes until last year’s epic season struck. As we anxiously monitored the approach of Hurricane Charley and frantically prepared for our first hurricane experience, I consoled myself with the thought that “well, at least I will have something interesting to scrap about for the Creating Keepsakes ‘A Day in the Life’ Contest.” (The date we were assigned to scrap about for the contest happened to be the day in which Charley passed over us in the early morning.) I thought about how to take pictures of the storm and saved the maps of it’s progress on my computer. And then when it was all over, I rushed outside in the early morning light with my camera to take pictures of the fortunately light damage to our yard as we all breathed a sigh of relief that it was over.

Unfortunately I got to repeat that process two more times in the next six weeks….

Now once again there is a storm sitting in the Caribbean that we have to watch and worry about. Still feeling storm fatigue from last year, we are really not ready to be dealing with this again. Again, I am turning to my scrapbooking to assist me in coping with the stress of watching the storm and waiting to see where it will go. My first thought when I heard the name “Dennis” was “Dennis the Menace – that’s a great page title!” My husband eased my stress over concern that this might interfere with my plans to attend CKU-Orlando in two weeks by coming up with a humorous plan for a hurricane-themed CKU to make me laugh. His class suggestions included Scrapping by Candlelight, Speed Scrapping in the Eye of the Hurricane, Creative Uses for Wet Paper, Will Your Adhesive Hold at 100mph Plus? and 101 New Uses for Spent Batteries. While I was laughing I forgot all about my storm fatigue. Throwing myself into preparation for that CKU is also a distraction, as I prepare tags, fibers and ribbons for swaps. I have already warned my husband that if we go to my in-laws home after the storm (they live near us and have to evacuate to our place during the storm because of living close to the water, but their power usually comes back on before ours because their lines are underground and ours aren’t) one of the neccessities I will be taking with me is some small scrapbook projects to keep me busy and reduce my stress. It would likely be more tags to swap at CKU so if it went on too long I could end up with enough to swap with everyone there and still have some extras!! Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that….

I realize that part of the therapeutic value of scrapbooking in dealing with my storm stress is that it helps me look past the storm, to the time after. It helps me realize that I will still be here after the crisis has passed to scrapbook about it, to attend CKU, and that life will go on. That sense of the future and of normalcy helps when you are staring a big unknown in the face and waiting to see what the outcome is. While it doesn’t work for every stressful situation, in this particular situation, that perspective helps immensely.

I think I will go scrap some more stress away while I wait for the 2pm update from the National Hurricane Center…does anyone know exactly how many people are there at CKU to make tags for?