The Ministry of Imagination
“It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.” ~Walter Brueggemann
I’ve imagined my way to a garden, to a space alive with beauty. That’s not all. I’ve imagined my way into celebrations, luscious meals, travel, nights of listening to good music with my teens; into conversations and poems and yoga retreats.
I remember reading a favorite writer, Christie Purifoy, tell of the way she imagined for what felt like forever, the farmhouse of her dreams, where she’d live with space to grow her beloved roses and to hold the tears and laughter of a multitude of human companions. When she discovered her current brick farmhouse, she knew she’d found the space of her imagination and began tending the soil of beauty and companionship. She imagined this place full with not only family, but with people who’s faces she didn’t yet know, coming to gather, to sit and linger and eat, and to be fed. And then, like a Polaroid picture, her vision slowly came into focus.
Reading about her lovely home, I imagined myself walking in Christie’s gardens, though it seemed an absolutely wild idea that this writer, someone who felt like a friend to me but to whom I was a complete stranger, would invite me onto her land. Then, this past fall, this imagined garden became a place of reality for me, as I walked through rows of dahlias, zinnias, and roses during a retreat hosted at Christie’s home. A once imagined table, where people could gather and have more than enough of every form of nourishment, stood in the center of those gardens, and so I saw another layer of the picture become real. My own imagination lit up—why not this abundance for me too?
What if we practiced experiencing the imagination as holy ground, practiced seeing spaces of beauty, seeing worlds of abundance and humans as whole? And then what if we practiced cultivating these places of imagination and this wholeness within ourselves?
As I spoke my own imagined garden into being, I received what felt like an affirmative response: this picture is good and holy and belongs. Friends and family who discovered what I was up to came alongside me with advice and tools and even with native plants split from their own fostered growth for me to add into my field of possibility.
That’s what I’ve come to think of this as—a field of possibility. Every morning now I sit on my front porch and I look out into what already is, and I imagine what could be. It’s a peaceful place that’s been fostered out of longing and allowing that which is holy to speak to my imagination of visions and creation.
I do not know what’s possible, but I have watched as my own imagined garden has started to take on shape and form. It is like the Polaroid—a picture that arises from a snap of faith in the future, comes through in a blurry, smoky haze and rises into color and line. What I do know is that this garden didn’t arise because I thought it into being, but I did imagine my way into working for it. I can’t help but wonder what else might arise this way.
Imagine it with me…Sagres, Portugal is so named for the sense that this is sacred land, where sea meets cliff in a gorgeous expanse of nature. The nearby historic town nourishes with its sense of wonder, color, delicious local seafood and wine. The people here are warm, inviting, playful even. On retreat, we get to listen to our hearts speak. We get to rest into a renewal of imagination that invites us to wonder over possibility and joy.
There are still a few spaces left to join us September 28-October 4, to feast, to be fed on nourishment for the body, mind, and soul. And feast on this delight: we’re able to offer a $200 discount for this special travel retreat from June 20-July 1! Enter the code SOLSTICE200 in the voucher/code field when signing up to apply this discount and join us! Learn more and Sign up here: Retreat to Sagres, Portugal