Inviting Imagination

My church has begun a time of looking at Imagination- in worship and cultivating it in our own lives.  One of the fun things we did on our retreat last week was to make a machine, each person joining in doing some repetitive action and sound that builds on the others.   I’ve thought a lot this week about that machine and the folks who stepped out into the circle to become a part.  It was fun, and a neat process for a group to look together at the importance of each of our creative selves as a part of the whole.

Today my friend Vernon, who is an artist, talked about imagination and one of the things really struck me.  I’ve been feeling really locked up in regards to art.  Not only have I been unable to create anything, I’ve been almost mad at the people who are!  He said that at some point we choose to sell our imagination as the fee to get rid of our fears.   He used as an example the fears he used to have as a kid of going into their dark basement because he could imagine all kinds of  monsters and traps, and he said he wished he still were afraid because at least it would mean that his imagination was still alive.   To imagine opens you wide and fear guards each step- the two just don’t exist well together.

I cleaned off my big desk/work table in my office/art room.  In the process, I found evidence of a more fearless me- the me with the imagination.  I loved looking through a stack of artist trading cards- I made one a day for quite a while.  I want to throw my fears aside and dabble again, make something from nothing or make something old into something new.   So, I cleared a space in my heart and on the art table.   Come on back home Imagination!