On Sunday, April 21 2013, ISA participated in the 4th Annual Water Festival, hosted by Tucson Arts Brigade. This festival integrates art, science and culture to raise awareness, promote stewardship, and foster creative expression about our water future. This year, Tucson Water Festival partnered with the Earth Day Festival at Reid Park and it was a lovely event!
Instead of having a booth with a table, handing out fliers about the Institute for the Shamanic Arts’ wonderful offerings , ISA created an altar for water, and that was our “booth”. Many people stopped and thanked Quynn (who was the booth tender this year) for the altar, and for creating sacred space in this public venue.
Also offered at the festival was a rope labyrinth for “walking”. There are a growing number of events where our sacred labyrinth maker shows up with his bag of colored ropes. He lays them on the ground in the form of a 7 circuit labyrinth, which is often considered a beautiful walking meditation. However, something we have noticed is… children love the labyrinth, they do not need any instructions, and they often want to Run! On this day, for a 5 hour festival, there were over 200 children who entered the labyrinth (with their parents , or as their adult watched) and ran, and ran and ran!!! What fun! It is a joy to watch them. There is never any crying, no fighting, they just run.
Big blessings to honoring water, and to children joyfully running!