It has been written that everything we make has been imagined before it is made. I wonder about that. Do we really intend to create poverty, environmental destruction and war?
Think about all the things that we have intentionally created. These are the artifacts of our civilization. Our gardens. Our farms. Our buildings. Our machines. Our applications. Our medicines. Our religions…. You get the idea. Are there inadvertent downsides to any of these?
Seems like now we are on the brink of some sort of cataclysmic change. Are we working toward a better relationship with this living planet we inhabit? What are we creating?
Imagination plays a very large role in any human creative process. Can imagination itself become diseased? What kinds of things get created if our imagination is sick? How do we discern and heal our sick imagination?
Robert Sardello is an accomplished psychologist who has written extensively about how we imagine our relationship to Earth and how that creates the future. He wrote, “Humanity is now approaching a new sense of love – the capacity to create love as a world forming force.” In his 2008 book, “Love and the Soul Creating A Future For Earth”, he urges us to “take the side of the world” as a viable alternative to pitting ourselves against the world. Here is a link to his blog: Robert Sardello
We are deeply social beings who are capable of accomplishing great things in collaboration with each other. So whatever we imagine creating as individuals has definite social ramifications. Whatever we create has to interact with other people and the world. Alana Shaw has studied this deeply and has developed collaborative processes that can help people create healthy inclusive communities. She wrote, “Everything we do in Turning the Wheel is an attempt to come back into relationship with our interdependence as human beings, and with the need for love, not power, to form the basis for how we live on the earth. We are passionately committed to building and sustaining transformative communities that are inclusive of all people, and that reach for and model unconditional love and acceptance as the norm.” Learn more about here work here: Turning The Wheel Productions
We share this world with all kinds of people, plants and animals. Our shared future can be beautiful if we are wise. I leave you with these very kind and thoughtful words by the late Helen Sylliboy. Learn more about her culture here: The Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
Creator, Thank you for this day you have given
us. Thank you for allowing us to gather here today and we ask you to enter where we are so that your teachings will work in us.
We ask for wisdom, so that we will know what
is good in this world.
We ask for love, so we can spread your love
everywhere.
We ask for respect, so that we will know that
everyone comes from one place….from you
We ask for bravery, so that we will not be
afraid to do your work here.
We ask for honesty, so that no one will lie or
harm anyone of us.
We ask for humility, so that no one will be
superior to another.
And lord, we ask for truth, so that we will see
you in the future, on the last day with clean
hearts and spirits.