Imagination.
'All it takes is a little imagination...'
You know, I cannot recall when I first heard those words, but they have been a lodestone in my life for as long as I can recall.
For me, imagination is that thing that lifts life above the mundane, that lights the darkest of days and shows the way to tomorrow.
Imagination for me is like having a movie theatre in my mind, with constant scenes of possiblities flitting across the screen, visions of potential and snapshots of a world beyond the here and now.
Being a writer, imagination is a key tool of my craft. ‘Without logic, the story is a fairy tale. Without imagination, it's a textbook.’ said a wise man called Evan Couche. I do not write textbooks. The glimpse of a red dress as a woman walks down the street and my mind is whirling the woman's story somewhere between blink and think. A haunting melody through an open window becomes instant inspiration of a story that seems to stream out of nowhere and into my head as I walk down the street.
Lying in my bed alone in the dark of night imagination takes me away into a dreamland that far exceeds the best that Hollywood ever had to offer.
Imagination.
Imagination.
Just the sound of the word and my mind is hearing waves on the beach, the hiss and swirl, rhythm and rush, cold water across hot sand.
Imagination.
Soothing.
Relaxing.
Truly a gift from the gods.
Albert Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.'
Is there any limit to this delirious thing, any thing that could possibly be bad about it?
Yes, there is.
Unfortunately imagination is not always put to positive uses. It is not always used to weave a story, paint a scene or capture a moment. There is another quote I saw recently that hit me with a jolt. I do not know who said it originally, but I saw it last weekend on the bumper sticker of a car that I was behind in traffic. This is what it said:
'Worrying is a waste of imagination'
It was one of those profound moments that happen from time to time in life.
When it comes down to it, what is worry, other than imagining all the possible bad outcomes and trying to find solutions to them. So much energy spent imagining negative things that may never happen, finding solutions that may never been needed. And in the end, what does it achieve? Often not much. One could claim that it permits one to be prepared for the worst possible outcome but is this really necessary?
For example, when it starts to spit rain, what do you do? Do you run for cover, perhaps? Or put up an umbrella? Maybe. Or do you race home, pack a survival kit, make sandbags and build walls around your property in case of flooding, taking your kids out of school so they wont be cut off, caging up all your pets and putting them in the car so they will be saved, or at the worst, letting out the chickens, cows and other livestock so they stand a chance in the coming flood - all because it began to rain?
What a waste of time and energy it would be. How unnecessary to do that when it could well have been just a passing shower.
Worry is the same. When it comes to worrying, often I find myself building sandbags on the first sign of rain - at least figuratively - exhausting myself trying to figure out worst-case scenarios and possible solutions to them.
Things have been a bit ragged around the edges here this year. We've had a rough six months and the last few weeks have been the roughest - most likely because we are all exhausted already from the preceeding few months.
I had fallen into the trap of sandbagging furiously and was wondering why I was so exhausted, spending half my days sleeping the sleep of the dead from the sheer magnitude of the task I was taking on.
Rather like the sorcerer's apprentice who used magic to help him fill the caldron, my magic, my imagination, had overrun me, trampled me and was causing chaos.
Yet my mind resisted the thought of letting go of the worrying. The problems still remained, so what was I to DO? After all, one must DO something. One can't just sit there and let the runaway locomotive that is my life run me down. Yes, something must be done, but sometimes it is far simpler than one can imagine (pun intended). Rather than worrying about how to stop that speeding locomotive and thinking stopping it is the only solution available, sometimes it's necessary to step back and look at the bigger picture. Ok, locomotive is running away, speeding towards me, threatening to run me down. What to do? Stop the locomotive? No matter how much I worry, I cannot figure out how to do that. Other options? What about just stepping off the tracks and letting it speed past? Taking a step out of the road is so much easier, so much less effort that stopping that speeding train.
Ok, nice metaphor, but how do I apply that in my life?
Simple.
I can rarely influence or change things that happen in my life. To quote another quote, 'shit happens'. It does. I cannot change the chaos that has been happening lately, no matter how much I worry...
But...
I 'can' change my attitude towards it.
I can change my response to it.
I can step off the tracks and let it go speeding on its merry way, leaving me whole, sane, safe, unsplattered and able to perhaps find a different solution further down the track (puns everywhere tonight..lol).
Rather than all the angst, worry and heartbreak that worrying brings with it, I simply change my way of thinking, change my way of responding, change how I use my imagination.
And you know the funniest thing? Once I do that, I am no longer overwhelmed by life and what it's throwing at me just now. I'm back in control and that freight train is no longer threatening to run me down - and what's more, my imagination is free to be used for what it should be used for, not wasted on fears of what may never be.
May you never live a life without wonder. May you never live without hope. May you never live without dreams. And may you never live without laughter. But most of all, may you never live without imagination - the greatest gift of all.
You know, I cannot recall when I first heard those words, but they have been a lodestone in my life for as long as I can recall.
For me, imagination is that thing that lifts life above the mundane, that lights the darkest of days and shows the way to tomorrow.
Imagination for me is like having a movie theatre in my mind, with constant scenes of possiblities flitting across the screen, visions of potential and snapshots of a world beyond the here and now.
Being a writer, imagination is a key tool of my craft. ‘Without logic, the story is a fairy tale. Without imagination, it's a textbook.’ said a wise man called Evan Couche. I do not write textbooks. The glimpse of a red dress as a woman walks down the street and my mind is whirling the woman's story somewhere between blink and think. A haunting melody through an open window becomes instant inspiration of a story that seems to stream out of nowhere and into my head as I walk down the street.
Lying in my bed alone in the dark of night imagination takes me away into a dreamland that far exceeds the best that Hollywood ever had to offer.
Imagination.
Imagination.
Just the sound of the word and my mind is hearing waves on the beach, the hiss and swirl, rhythm and rush, cold water across hot sand.
Imagination.
Soothing.
Relaxing.
Truly a gift from the gods.
Albert Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.'
Is there any limit to this delirious thing, any thing that could possibly be bad about it?
Yes, there is.
Unfortunately imagination is not always put to positive uses. It is not always used to weave a story, paint a scene or capture a moment. There is another quote I saw recently that hit me with a jolt. I do not know who said it originally, but I saw it last weekend on the bumper sticker of a car that I was behind in traffic. This is what it said:
'Worrying is a waste of imagination'
It was one of those profound moments that happen from time to time in life.
When it comes down to it, what is worry, other than imagining all the possible bad outcomes and trying to find solutions to them. So much energy spent imagining negative things that may never happen, finding solutions that may never been needed. And in the end, what does it achieve? Often not much. One could claim that it permits one to be prepared for the worst possible outcome but is this really necessary?
For example, when it starts to spit rain, what do you do? Do you run for cover, perhaps? Or put up an umbrella? Maybe. Or do you race home, pack a survival kit, make sandbags and build walls around your property in case of flooding, taking your kids out of school so they wont be cut off, caging up all your pets and putting them in the car so they will be saved, or at the worst, letting out the chickens, cows and other livestock so they stand a chance in the coming flood - all because it began to rain?
What a waste of time and energy it would be. How unnecessary to do that when it could well have been just a passing shower.
Worry is the same. When it comes to worrying, often I find myself building sandbags on the first sign of rain - at least figuratively - exhausting myself trying to figure out worst-case scenarios and possible solutions to them.
Things have been a bit ragged around the edges here this year. We've had a rough six months and the last few weeks have been the roughest - most likely because we are all exhausted already from the preceeding few months.
I had fallen into the trap of sandbagging furiously and was wondering why I was so exhausted, spending half my days sleeping the sleep of the dead from the sheer magnitude of the task I was taking on.
Rather like the sorcerer's apprentice who used magic to help him fill the caldron, my magic, my imagination, had overrun me, trampled me and was causing chaos.
Yet my mind resisted the thought of letting go of the worrying. The problems still remained, so what was I to DO? After all, one must DO something. One can't just sit there and let the runaway locomotive that is my life run me down. Yes, something must be done, but sometimes it is far simpler than one can imagine (pun intended). Rather than worrying about how to stop that speeding locomotive and thinking stopping it is the only solution available, sometimes it's necessary to step back and look at the bigger picture. Ok, locomotive is running away, speeding towards me, threatening to run me down. What to do? Stop the locomotive? No matter how much I worry, I cannot figure out how to do that. Other options? What about just stepping off the tracks and letting it speed past? Taking a step out of the road is so much easier, so much less effort that stopping that speeding train.
Ok, nice metaphor, but how do I apply that in my life?
Simple.
I can rarely influence or change things that happen in my life. To quote another quote, 'shit happens'. It does. I cannot change the chaos that has been happening lately, no matter how much I worry...
But...
I 'can' change my attitude towards it.
I can change my response to it.
I can step off the tracks and let it go speeding on its merry way, leaving me whole, sane, safe, unsplattered and able to perhaps find a different solution further down the track (puns everywhere tonight..lol).
Rather than all the angst, worry and heartbreak that worrying brings with it, I simply change my way of thinking, change my way of responding, change how I use my imagination.
And you know the funniest thing? Once I do that, I am no longer overwhelmed by life and what it's throwing at me just now. I'm back in control and that freight train is no longer threatening to run me down - and what's more, my imagination is free to be used for what it should be used for, not wasted on fears of what may never be.
May you never live a life without wonder. May you never live without hope. May you never live without dreams. And may you never live without laughter. But most of all, may you never live without imagination - the greatest gift of all.