Five-minute Friday: Imagine
As a little girl playing often on her own, I had imagination in droves. Always, always, imagining myself different than I was, I inhabited the worlds of characters I created or admired. More adventurous, more beautiful, more exciting. Even on vacations, we were never "tourists climbing a look-out tower in San Francisco" - I was being held hostage and devising a way to repel through the window and down the tower to find my way back home.
And I think it started off innocent and pure, as imagination always does, and somewhere along the way, it became my way of coping with loneliness. With avoiding seeing my life for what it really was. I grew up and tucked imagination away, in the way that I'd known it, or at least I thought. But it was still there, a part of me, the lens through which I peered out at my future and held my fears at bay.
I imagine, someday, I will be this. I will do this. My life, my worth, my identity, will be found in this. Because this, it's better than what really is right now.
Of course, I didn't really think that in a conscious way. It was a much, much deeper knowing.
And imagination, as an adult, always vacillates, seeking to find its place back home. Between the childlike wonder of the everyday; the faith-informed eyes that dare to see something that is not yet; the avoidance of what is; and that dark, downward spiral of fear.
Even this - imagination - cries out for its redemption, and waits with hope.
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Joining with Lisa Jo for FMF
Wow. I could have spoken these same words. thanks for letting me see that I'm not the only one that looks for imagination in the adult life. You've sparked a new excitment to once again imagine & hope.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me happy. You are definitely not alone in this, and HALLELUJAH for new excitement to imagine and hope. Lean into it, girl.
DeleteAwww...I think you and I were connected when we wrote about "imagine" today. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteMe, too. Loved your post :-)
DeleteSo beautiful. Thanks for sharing! Joining from Five Minute Friday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting!
Delete"imagination cries out for its redemption, and wait with hope" oh YES friend. even this.
ReplyDeleteevery time you write...i find so much of what i long to put in words here on your page. Thank you so much for sharing your gift.
Wow, such an honor I feel in reading your words... grateful that these words somehow give voice to your heart. Thank you.
DeleteOh Amber you hit the nail on the head with this one. I often find myself living in the 'who I will someday be/do/have' and I don't know that I've realized the 'why' behind I go there. Thanks for giving a deeper perspective.
ReplyDeletePraying, Nicole, that the Spirit sheds light on the 'why', and along the way, continues to show you the immeasurable value of being who you are - his. Oh, such a lifelong pursuit, friend. I'm learning how much more I have to learn about finding myself in him, too.
DeleteOh my word - this is so gorgeous and powerful and true!
ReplyDeleteAmber, my friend, you've shared such wisdom here, and I love the contradictions you allow side by side... the journey of imagination which is an extension of faith and excitement in God and with his vision and also this -- "imagination, as an adult, always vacillates, seeking to find its place back home." May our imaginings open up new worlds of his hope while knowing we always have "our place" with him! I love you and your big dreaming, feeling, imagining self!
ReplyDeleteOh friend, your words - "May our imaginings open up new worlds of his hope while knowing we always have 'our place' with him" - remind me that even the greatest imagination cannot ever fully imagine what it's like to live, always, in him as our place. That the 'end' of imagination and the beginning of it are both in him, and yet, there is no end to him... and that just blows my mind, right there. I love you and your ever-growing, childlike, holy imagination.
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