Imagining what comes next
An online program exploring the power of imagination
On the cusp of great change, our imaginations naturally activate in the presence of so many unknowns, giving us an important tool — but one that can sometimes make change harder than it needs to be. I’m talking about the way we can imagine a dreadful future long before it is a reality, making the present unbearable and locking us into a story that is not yet fully written. As one with a vivid imagination myself, I’ve done this many times only to discover the true story of the future turned out to be different — and sometimes better — than I thought it would be.
It can be tempting to think we know what the future will hold, but that false sense of certainty pinches off the many other possibilities always present on the threshold. In Trusting Change, I name some of the ways we can engage our imaginations more fruitfully to help reveal and make real some of the possibilities we long for.
“Each of us, on the threshold, is invited . . . to live into a story of larger possibilities and kinship. This means letting our stories grow with us or finding new stories that make space for who we are becoming….
“As humans, when we move through change personally and collectively, some of the stories that supported us before might not be spacious enough for the transformation now underway. So we want to keep asking: Are the stories shaping our worldview expansive enough for the changes we are experiencing now? Will they accommodate and support the unfolding that our future well-being depends on? If not, how might we revise them, add to them, or imagine a whole new story that begins today?”
GUIDED ONLINE SESSION TUESDAY, NOV 19
If you’d like to explore these and other questions related to “Imagining a Way,” please join me for this month’s online session of embodied practices and guided writing and reflection, “On the Cusp of Change: Imagining a Way,” this coming Tuesday, November 19, 7 pm CT. You can register through the retreat centers co-sponsoring these online programs, the Christine Center or Prairiewoods. Or, if you are a paid subscriber to Threshold Times, your registration is a benefit of your subscription and you can register free using the button at the bottom of this email. Scroll down to find it.
Whether I see you online next week, or not, I hope you find your own ways of keeping your imagination aligned with your hopes for what comes next and less bridled by your fears. Although we cannot control the future, we have more agency in co-authoring it when we let our imaginations more fully create and claim the world we want to make real.
And if you missed the reflection on Imagining a Way sent earlier, you’ll find it here, “Imagining a Way.”
Together, let’s write a bigger story with room for all of us.
Karen