Recently when I was digging through piles of spiral binders and file folders of class notes from my "undergrad" seminary degrees, I uncovered a handout from the pastoral care class, "Helping Parishioners Envision the Future" by Andrew Lester and Howard Stone. The authors referenced Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard's understanding of persons as possessing actuality, freedom, and possibility. The trio of words are ideal for art journaling and reflection. Actuality includes past actions, context, choices we've made, and our physiological condition/limitations. Freedom deals with the present opportunities but based in the reality of choices/limitations from our past. Possibility is the springboard forward with new options and new opportunities, but it is centered in the reality of the past/present. So, given choices I've made in the past and given the realistic limitations of my present life, what are the opportunities for possibly creating a new future.
The art part was a spin-off of the Mood Map (see previous post) and began with masking a page and using watercolor crayons to color each of the blocks. I also identified my moods & feelings and wrote those in the white (unmasked) lines. I stenciled ACTUALITY, FREEDOM, and POSSIBILITY to remind me of these terms and also to be a future visual of this reflection combination. The questions for each themed word are open-ended and intended to spark thought for ongoing reflection.The "answers" also could be added as another layer on the journal page.
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| Use multiple layers of watercolor crayons. |
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| Identify your moods & feelings in your present context. |
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| Chapter 4 from Strategies for Brief Pastoral Counseling, ed. Howard W. Stone. |
