Just Imagine

Dear Partners in Green,

As we move into a yet uncertain future, I believe it is important for us to imagine the future we want for ourselves and our loved ones. I think there is a need for us to appreciate the value of imagination, as we learn that imagination is more important than reality. 

Albert Einstein had observed that “reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one,” and that “imagination is everything. It is the preview for life’s coming attractions.”

Why is it so essential?

Imagination ignites passion. For individuals and for organizations there is a connection between passion and purpose.

I first realized this when my passion for poetry led to my years of leading poetry programs. Passion and purpose may supersede survival and responsibility, but isn’t it also possible to be both passionate and responsible?

Imagination stimulates creativity and innovation and thus creates our future. 

I quote from a piece in the “Huffington Post.”

“When we stay immersed in what is directly in front of us at all times (i.e. our current reality), we continually create the same challenges, problems, and experiences over and over again. But, when we venture into our imagination to focus on the reality that we want to experience, the energy is set in motion and magnificent change can occur.”

Choosing to use your imaginative muscle as a means of creation provides hope. Where there is hope there is ultimately an opportunity for transformation and change.

Today I invite us all to activate and exercise our imaginations, to dare to dream:

• Imagine a world in which all energy is “clean” and no one is relegated to breathe in deadly contaminant.

• Imagine a world we can feel proud to leave to our children and grandchildren.

• Imagine daily learning of species brought back from the brink of extinction.

• Imagine schools in the poorest cities having educational resources equal to those in the most affluent communities.

Just imagine what good things the future might hold for us and for the world.

The possibilities are endless. We have the power to create so much more, and it is up to us to use our imaginations to do so.

Do not keep these imaginings to yourselves, but share them here at this site, and with family and friends, that united by hopes and dreams for a better future, a new reality will emerge.

And please let us know the good future you are imagining.

Here are a few lines from the poem, Dreams Before Waking  by Adrienne Rich

What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other’s despair to hope? –
You yourself must change it. –
What would it feel like to know
your country was changing? –
You yourself must change it. –
Though your life felt arduous
new and unmapped and strange
what would it mean to stand on the
first page of the end of despair?

What other song could I have chosen?

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Wishing peace and health to you and your loved ones.

Thank you for being on this journey.

Till next time,
Beth