Imagine

Ever since I was a young girl I have imagined living in a beautiful, healthy, vibrant, and environmentally friendly community. Since then I have read about such communities, watched documentaries about these places, explored some of these places and continued to imagine living permanently in one. Lately there are some happenings in our community that are whispering of the possibilities of such a reality blossoming here. It is time to get excited about the opportunities that are showing up and kick our imaginations into high gear to create energetic avenues to transform those possibilities into realities.

Unfortunately many of us have been punished and berated by teachers, parents, employers and other authority figures for wasting our valuable time in dreamy thought. Day dreaming and spending time exercising our imaginations is actually a very productive use of our energy. It opens us to be able to receive unfiltered information and creatively arrange it into new patterns and ideas. It is these new ideas that can become solutions to some of the biggest challenges that we are facing or simply new ways of doing things that can be better than the status quo. Inventors, past and present, are well aware of the power of free flowing thought. Athletes have tapped into a more focused form of this mind power for many decades. They understand that their bodies do not differentiate between imagined activity and actual activity. In other words they can train by putting their bodies through their usual training routines or they can train by quieting themselves and visualizing themselves completing their routines. Both forms of training are equally valuable. For more information about sports visualization or creative visualization just surf the web, there is an abundance of resources to be found. One of my favourite books on this subject is “Creative Visualization” by Shakti Gawain, and this year is the 25th anniversary of its original release http://www.shaktigawain.com/booksandmore.php

Did you know that the Chinese symbol for crisis also has the word opportunity in it? While some people are focusing on all of the loss around us and finding it difficult to be hopeful, others, like myself, are dreaming of the possibilities, talking about them and even making them happen. I have painted and hung an opportunity enhancing canvas right near my front door to keep me aware of opportunities in my midst. I have launched a new business along side other brave entrepreneurial souls who are seizing the opportunity of these fertile times. I recently attended a local Chamber of Commerce event that highlighted new local businesses and I was pleased by the ingenuity, creativity and positivity of all in attendance. Last week I attended the Erie Cultural Action Team's Cultural Mapping Launch at Smith & Wilson Wineries. It too was attended by many forward thinking people who can smell the opportunities swirling around us.

Maybe you are not the entrepreneurial type, or you don't know how you can contribute to the cultural development that is underway. You can still help out, and you can do it from your favourite armchair if you like. You can contribute some time and energy to dreaming of the improvements, opportunities, and lifestyle that you would like to live. The more that we fill the airwaves with thoughts of possibility and renewal, the more energy is available for manifestation of positive change. This kind of thinking might even motivate you to put a plan in place and begin working on it. Remember that journey of a thousand miles – it began with one step. If you need some food for thought for your imagineering check out this site about some amazing cities doing some amazing things http://science.howstuffworks.com/five-amazing-green-cities.htm

I believe that everyone has a very important role if they are alive on this planet today. Martha Graham, the mother of modern dance, if she was still alive, would agree with me. She is the author of one of my favourite quotations ( I am a quotation collector – takes up a lot less room than other types of collections!) She said “There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.” I have no doubt, that if you give yourself some time to daydream and imagine things on your own terms, you will start to get in touch with your unique purpose. Consider why you think some things are important and others are not. You are built, wired, and inspired for a specific purpose and these times are ripe for you discovering what that is.

If you are really struggling with figuring out anything related to your purpose make arrangements to work with a personal coach, counselor, vision quest leader or engage in some training to assist you to remember who you are (get in touch and ask me about Shamanic Journeying if you yearn to learn how to gather information that is unique to you). You can also ask those closest to you for clues about your strengths and weaknesses. Ask them sincerely and be prepared to truly listen to what they have to say. Others can see our powers at work more readily than we can – we are too close to ourselves to be objective.

Lately as I read our local print and online newspapers I have focused on the Chatham-Kent Trails Master Plan that is unfolding, the possibility of Findally Inc. making its home here, the expanding cucumber industry, new business ventures, and the work of the Cultural Action Teams. I do smell opportunity in the air.