“Imagination is from God,” Anne Lamott writes in Help Thanks Wow. (Page 21.) Imagination is of grace. “I think it is okay to imagine God and grace the best you can.” It is true, she says, that some imaginings cause us to shut down or tune out. We can choose that, if we want. We can also choose to imagine with hope and love and peace – which allows for the very best of us to come out.
Imagining God is different from wishful thinking – and the way you tell, she says, is over time. “Have you become more generous, which is the ultimate healing? Or more patient, which is a close second? Did your world become bigger and juicier and more tender? Have you become ever so slightly kinder to yourself? This is how you tell.” (Page 21.)
Join me in reading and discussing Anne Lamott's new book, Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, during the season of Epiphany & Gratitude (January 6 - February 12, 2013).
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Imagining my way out of difficult situations
Sometimes when I feel stuck in a difficult situation, I'll realize that part of what's keeping me stuck is that I can't imagine what it would feel like for me if that situation were NOT difficult. If I meditate on other ways I could experience it -- not specific outcomes per se, but what it would feel like for me to not engage, say, or to just let it go -- then often the stuckness will begin to dissolve.
Of course, as Anne Lamott said somewhere else, "Everything I've ever let go of has claw marks on it." :)
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