April 1st – April Fool’s Day. The Fool inspired this month’s illustration. The Fool is the perfect next step to last month’s blog: A Leap of Trust.
In the Tarot, the Fool is the first card in the deck. The number zero. It represents the individual at the outset of the journey. The Fool is innocent, spontaneous, trusting and optimistic. It is this innocent optimism that helps at the start of any project.
The Fool Archetype was operating back in 1998 when I made the decision to create a documentary film on death after my parents died. I really had no idea how I would accomplish it. I had no camera, no crew, no experience and no money. Had I known what was involved, I probably would never have started.
Innocence and optimism are the fool’s greatest strengths because they endear him/her to others and help gain support on the quest. I attracted a digital camera, a director of photography, an awesome editor and the perfect music composer along with many helpers and supporters.
The Fool is an archetypal character who appears in many cultural traditions. The fool maybe be ostracized as the Village Idiot, but he/she can see and do things others cannot. Often coupled with the King, the fool balances his dignity and properness with outrageous silliness and levity that often has wisdom at its core. Too much dignity and properness can keep us from our inspirational source and creative solutions.
Our inner child, our foolish, optimistic innocence keeps us fluid and imaginative.
The Fool, of course has it’s shadow side. It may fail to heed important warning and can be blind to it’s weaknesses and illusions. But it is a great balancer for someone who doggedly pushes forward to make something happen without taking time to enjoy the process.
The Fool or Inner Child can also help us with our losses. It reminds us that sometimes it is OK to be distracted from the pain — to play and laugh and have a good time even when we hurt.
The Inner Child is at the core of our feelings of abandonment and survival after loss and also the key to our healing. When we let the Inner Child both cry and laugh, when we heed it’s instinctive needs, emotional energy is released and transformation can occurs.
Often the griever finds him/herself on a whole new life journey. Again the Inner Child is there to guide us. As we fumble through unknown territory, learning new skills and finding our way, our child-like self-centered focus — one of the gifts of grief — allows us to uncover what we really need and who we really are.
Playfulness is the best way to stimulate the creativity, innocence and healing power of the Inner Child/Fool.
How do you play? Here are some ideas:
- Spend some time with a flesh and blood child of 6 and under
- Improv
- Dance
- Music Jam
- Draw with your non-dominant hand
- Play a board game like Parchessi or Monopoly with friends or family.
- Charades
- Color in a coloring book, alone or with friends.
- Create an abstract drawing with others.
- Tell a group story in which each person takes a turn adding one sentence or phrase to the story
- Go on a picnic
- Fly a kite
- Play a skill game like bachi ball or volleyball without keeping score
- Play Madlibs
- Converse with someone through puppets or stuffed animals
- Converse through gibberish with hand gestures and voice tone
- Read a children’s book out loud to another
- Read children’s verses or rhymes out loud to another
- Pick a bouquet of flowers from your garden
- Get into a tickle or pillow fight
- Bounce on a trampoline
- Make puns or sharing silly jokes
- Dress up in a disguise and go to a party
- Bake cookies
Are you inspired? Please post your own ideas in the comments section below and/or share what happens when you try out one of these suggestions.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Grief, Loss and Death Expert Michelle Peticolas, Ph.D. helps professional women struggling with grief and loss to have peace-of-mind, closure and a life worth living. If you’re ready to shift into a whole new way of being with death and loss, a new way of living your life, get Michelle’s complimentary guide, Essentials for Grieving Well at www.secretsoflifeanddeath.com
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