92. Footsteps Into The Future
In the Kaleidoscope Summer Camp this last week one of the creative crafts projects was called “Footsteps into the Future” which totally caught the imaginations of the participants. You may find it valuable.
The activity is to trace both feet (one slightly ahead of the other) on a half sheet of poster board. (First in pencil, then go over it with a marker.)
Then you create a border around the whole thing using colors, images, symbols, patterns, whatever you like, creating a beautiful frame.
Inside whichever foot is slightly behind the other (left or right, it doesn’t matter), use words, images, colors and patterns that best describe YOU NOW. Prompter questions can include – What do you love? What makes you happy? What are you like? What are your strengths? What do you like to do? Do you have a mission? What important things do you believe in? What animal describes you best? What is your root number, astrological sign and element? What is your ethnic background? What are your principles and values? What do you stand for?
To really answer some of these prompters requires getting reflections from a kind and honest helper.
Once that step is complete (45 minutes or so), then inside the leading foot use words, images, colors, patterns, symbols etc. that describe your current vision of YOU IN THE FUTURE. What are your hopes and wishes for the future? What do you want to be like? What is your purpose? What do you want to do? What about family and community? What do you want to see in the world? What kind of world do you want to live in, participate in? What qualities do you want to embody? What animal best describes what you want to be like? And onwards…
The first foot, the one slightly behind the other, your NOW foot, is your pivot point. It is the balance and strength you come from as you step into the future…(every moment of every day!).
It is a beautiful and provocative exercise. We worked on it over two one hour sessions with children ages 6 to 13. So you might imagine the range of responses and application. At the end of the week we displayed the artwork in mural mosaic style… It was stunning!
The most astounding thing about this process is realizing how limited and predictable the future is actually envisioned, contemplated, imagined within our cultural framework. It is rare to meet a vision of the future which is NOT some form of continuation of the past.
Near the end of the project, one of the younger children exclaimed “I just realized that my ‘future foot’ has most of the same things as my ‘now foot’! Does that mean I’m in the future already!?”
What are your footsteps into the future?
~PAZ
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