Footprints from the Future: Billie’s Memoir
This A–Z began as a learning tool—rooted in my work in adult education and leadership. Over time, it became something more: a future-leaning memoir told through the voice of Billie Harper, the central character in my literary fiction trilogy Footprints in the Future—yet to be published.
Set 200 years from now, Billie writes from a world reshaped by listening, care, and climate healing. Her reflections—A is for Awareness, B for Belonging, C for Curiosity, and so on—explore how change is made, memory is honoured, and new stories take root.
Each entry in this imagined archive offers a glimpse into a wiser world, one built from the fragments we nearly lost. It’s part memoir, part guide, part time capsule—lessons I’ve learned and lived, reimagined through Billie’s eyes.
Though fictional, these stories draw from real questions I carried as an educator, coach, and woman navigating a fractured world. What if we had truly listened? What would we rebuild? And how might the future remember us?
You can begin anywhere—each letter stands alone and invites reflection. This is a journey of learning and remembering, one step at a time.
Welcome to the A–Z of Listening, Belonging, and Becoming.
Awareness, in Billie Harper’s world was more than attention — it was survival, memory, and care. The beginning of all learning, even after the Collapse.
Belonging, the quiet force that shapes our sense of self and place. It weaves us into community, guiding how we show up in the world.
Creativity is how we adapted. Not a spark, but a thread — woven through collapse, carried by care, and shaped by what we chose to notice.
Determination is the quiet strength that returns day after day—through setbacks, slow progress, and care that refuses to quit.
Empathy is the ability to sit with someone else’s story—even when it’s uncomfortable. It’s the practice of listening with care.
Faith is what carries us forward through fear and uncertainty. It’s not blind optimism, but a quiet, steady belief.
Growth is never just learning about the past. It is learning how to grow into the future. Each insight becomes a seed.
Harmony is paying attention to country and seasonal rhythms. To what was always known but ignored for too long.
Inspiration is the spark that fuels creativity, growth, and positive change. It lives quietly. It arrives when we pay attention.
Joy isn’t the same as happiness. Happiness can be fleeting—a rush, a reaction, a good outcome. But joy? Joy is quieter, more lasting.
Knowing trusts. Belief hopes. It doesn’t chase certainty—it is certainty. A quiet, embodied truth that steadies you when nothing else can.
Learning is movement, listening, practice. We studied salt patterns and rainfall. We learned from ancestral archives.
Mindfulness is about learning to live in the here and now. As a way of being—rooted in land, breath, and connection.
Nourishment is a kind of remembering. A return to what fills—not just the body, but the heart, the mind, the spirit.
Optimism is more than a sunny outlook—it’s gritty, steady and deeply practical. You see it in the way people show up for on another.
Prosperity often means money and material gain. But in truth, it reaches far beyond that—into how we live, connect, and care.
Quality is about alignment. When the inside matches the outside. When what we offer is an honest reflection of who we are.
Resilience is not about bouncing back—but growing through loss, tending to what matters, and beginning again.
Self—with a capital S—is, in Jung’s view, the essence of being human. It’s the complexity, care, and privilege of becoming who we truly are.