Resources for the Imagination

Today is a travel day for me, so I’ve queued up a few of my recent faves to keep your imagination blooming. With the failure of imagination increasingly choking out our legal system, imagining possibilities is ever more important. So I’m just going to keep using the words imagining and imagination, redundancy be damned. 🤓✨

Imagining For Science-y Types

When you’re feeling climate-action-oriented and science-y, I recommend any podcast, edited essay collection, or future books from marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Mark and I first heard her on NPR’s TED Radio Hour talking about her love of parrot fish, including, for example, how they poop fine white sand and undergo a mid-life sex change. (Her segment starts at minute 34 but the other guests are also worth the listen.) Then we got hooked on the podcast she co-founded and used to co-host with Alex Blumberg called How to Save a Planet. Each episode ends with suggested action items.

A particular gem from the podcast On Being is this conversation between Dr. Johnson and Krista Tippett. They focus on what feels crucial to me, which is the need to first fall in love with this Nature that we’re a part of, then imagine what we want to happen, then do things in that direction. Pretty straight-forward, right? But it’s a message that gets lost amid all of the doom-slinging around climate issues. The episode is called What If We Get This Right?

Imagining for Soulful Psychological Types

From a whole different angle but equally compelling is the work of Michael Meade, a story-teller who draws on ancient tales from around the world to invoke what he calls mythic imagination. I’ve quoted him before, and recommend any of his Living Myth podcast episodes.

Here’s a snippet from a recent episode titled, News From the Otherworld:

In denying or dismissing the nearby realm of the otherworld, modern cultures wind up, not just fenced in by fixed ideas and failing ideologies, but also blindly separated from the very sources from which healing might come.

I find the work of Michael Meade (and similarly, Clarissa Pinkola-Estés), helpful for zooming out to a broader perspective on humanity as well as a psychological/Jungian understanding about the interplay between the ego, or “little self” and the soul, the “deep Self.” And rather than causing me to be like, “well, that’s just the way people are/nothing can be done about it/we’re screwed,” this approach illuminates areas where I can reduce my panicky attachment to certain beliefs, and instead focus on ways I can build soul in the world. For me, that usually leads to some form of art-making, but it can also show up as conversations with new neighbors, reaching out to a friend going through a hard time, speaking honestly about our fears and our dreams, and so many other acts of truth- and beauty-making.

As I’ve said before, because humans are capable of causing soul loss (e.g. the suburban strip mall, divisive politics, treating the body as an enemy to be subdued), it follows that we also have the power to create more soul. I’ve tried but I can’t think of a more worthy endeavor. Can you?

An Imagination Training Book

I want to re-recommend the book, The Art of Possibility, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. It’s an effective tutorial for seeing imagination in action. The book is full of examples of how doing the not-quite-expected thing blows open new pathways to opportunities. It’s a guide for stepping into the territory of not-knowing, for being curious, for taking chances, for building resilience, and for opening ourselves up to the possibility of being delighted.

Oh Yeah, I Wrote One of Those, Too

This reminds me of another guide in a very different format — my own book, called Doodle Your Way Out of Stuckness: Imagination Lessons for Changing the World (and rearranging your furniture). In it, I lead you through some pen-to-paper exercises to get the creative juices flowing, while also tuning you in to the meta-cognition taking place. Namely, what voices are you hearing as you make marks on paper, and what (probably nasty) things are they saying? And how can we turn that judgment into curiosity and a more neutral form of noticing what we like/dislike and why? Learning to not be embarrassed by our own ideas is a critical prerequisite for putting imaginative ideas into the world.

I describe my book as both whimsical and meaty. Reader-doodlers concur. Many also report enjoying the humor sprinkled throughout. 🤩

Let’s Fire Up Our Imaginations

I can’t think of a better time to heat up our imaginations than this particular summer in this particular cultural-political-ecological situation.

May your daydreams elicit shimmery possibilities and clarity.
May your doodles be free and voluminous.
May you speak your imaginings aloud, your voice becoming steadier with each retelling.

Imagining us whole,
Pam

P.S. The Doodling Lunatics 🖍🌙 are on summer break. I could use your encouragement if you’d like to see these free monthly lunar-themed Zoom gatherings return in the fall. Whaddya think?

P.P.S. Portland-area folks, you can find me teaching creative reuse and other forms of imagining at:
ReBuilding Center (somewhat monthly mosaic, found-object jewelry, and other classes)
Belle Flower Farm (“Where Mosaic Meets Collage” on Aug. 23)
Portland Community College/SE Campus (Art Journaling) beginning Fall 2022. (Stay tuned!)

My book is having a little resurgence — a flurry of interest and sales. 🙌🏽 It’s always available in my online shop, and now in Portland at Rose City Book Pub (NE Fremont St/13th Ave) , Broken Dreams (NE Alberta St/15th Ave), and in Vancouver, WA at Belle Flower Farm. I appreciate these retail collaborators! ❤️