This school break, it seemed imperative that I enable the team to reflect on self, go inwards and strengthen their own personhoods. This need arises from the nature of our work. It makes very heavy demands on us as people and I feel in order to keep going and nurturing others we must on occasion nurture ourselves.
I planned to explore the mode of the Digital Story as a medium that would help the school resource team reflect on some aspect of themselves and represent it in a form that used technology and was perhaps attractive. As often happens this was not meant to be and I went to visit with my friend Milan who has been exploring crafts with paper and plastic quite exhaustively over the past year. Milan shared how she used the ‘spirit doll’ process with her students at the Goa College of Architecture and I had one of my light bulb moments – let us find our own spirits while on this term break.
We began with little or no expectation
But a consistent openness and eagerness
To allow ourselves an experience on the
hint of my suggestion and the word
doll
We began with a room full of material
Every surface lined with hand crafted
Spirits and forms that were still but
alive all the same and
watching
We began with the same fullness of
Spirit to receive and in a circle of
Trust and readiness to go in and come
back out again creating
self
We began with sticks and strips and
Paper and string and glue and thread and
Feather as wings and lightness and structure
shape and form emerged
awakened
We began a journey to allow what is in
To flow without to begin to talk to
And with the self in a form that crafted
out of our own but with each
other
We began something and it was good
Thank you Milan for this gift and opportunity to grow ! On reflection we found that it was the space of trust, open ness, no expectation, and no judgement that every one found their creative self.
