Wisdom for all ages

Last week I went to Kala Art Institute's Print Public open house. Our group, the Northern California Women for Art, helped organize a tour. We learned about Susan O'Malley's wonderful posters and murals she created with words she gathered from others. I was so taken with her project I decided at the last minute to incorporate it into my Wisdom Flag Workshop I was having at the Coastside Senior Center in Half Moon Bay.

I led a visual meditation during which the artists met with their eight year old selves. During the silent meditation, the artists gave their younger selves five pieces of wisdom gathered from their years of living. After the meditation they worked with this knowledge in their wisdom flags.

Some interesting things came up: "my younger self was dancing happy and naked - can I put something about that on my flag?" "I think my eight year old self had more wisdom of me than I had for her!" "Teeth, take care of your teeth!"

As the class was only one and a half hours, the artists created quickly using paints, collage, and writing. During the art sharing, I found we were all nodding in acknowledgement and awe - what wisdom we all had to gift each other and the world!