1 00:00:00,49.999999999955 --> 00:00:00,409.99999999997 Hey there. 2 00:00:00,409.99999999997 --> 00:00:07,489.9999999999 Welcome to the Deeper Podcast, a podcast that's all about living a life that can love the hell out of this world with a little bit more courage and love. 3 00:00:07,939.9999999999 --> 00:00:11,170 My name is Reverend Sean and I'm here with Reverend Elaine. 4 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:12,020 Hey. 5 00:00:12,935 --> 00:00:19,445 Hi, Sean, and we're here in our last episode in our Active Hope series. 6 00:00:19,685 --> 00:00:34,115 We've been exploring the work of eco philosopher Joanna Macy, and all of the ways that we can move through this deep spiral of finding gratitude in this world, despite its tangle blessings, honoring the pain that we have because we're connected to it. 7 00:00:34,115 --> 00:00:37,475 And today we arrive in the latter part of the cycle. 8 00:00:37,910 --> 00:00:46,310 In which we're moving into, uh, seeing with new eyes and going forth and kind of stepping into action in these steps. 9 00:00:46,310 --> 00:00:51,712.5 And Elaine, that's what your message is all about, but you were just saying something to me about this message let's dive into that. 10 00:00:52,332.5 --> 00:00:52,622.5 Yeah. 11 00:00:52,882.5 --> 00:01:02,392.5 Well, I was just thinking about my process for writing this sermon and crafting this worship service and this taught the idea that. 12 00:01:03,562.5 --> 00:01:15,952.5 Of, of catching an inspiring vision that we need to engage our imaginations to kind of get a grasp on where we're going or where we wanna be or who we wanna be. 13 00:01:16,372.5 --> 00:01:18,712.5 That that's a step that comes before the doing. 14 00:01:19,852.5 --> 00:01:31,132.5 I f came into this feeling like, I really get that, and yet I kind of had some challenges at first really dropping down into this. 15 00:01:31,492.5 --> 00:01:32,302.5 Topic. 16 00:01:32,932.5 --> 00:01:55,432.5 Um, and I think it's because I think I was kind of using the wrong part of my brain to try to get into this because that imaginative space is so, um, it moves in its own time. 17 00:01:56,32.5 --> 00:02:30,467.5 What is making me think of Yeah, is how often when I'm sitting down to try to imagine things, the quality of those imaginings is often lackluster, but I seem to, um, Be caught unaware in certain moments by really big, beautiful imagination, and that there's a kind of an interesting thing where you, if you try to go looking for it without kind of setting the table, without kind of priming yourself in some ways, um, it can be hard to access directly. 18 00:02:31,362.5 --> 00:02:32,232.5 That's really true. 19 00:02:32,232.5 --> 00:02:35,142.5 It's almost like you can't look directly at it. 20 00:02:35,232.5 --> 00:02:38,382.5 That's what I left a and what I've been thinking about a lot. 21 00:02:38,382.5 --> 00:02:40,902.5 There are two things I left the sermon thinking about a lot. 22 00:02:41,322.5 --> 00:02:52,152.5 The first is the value of the things we do or the spaces that we set up that aren't directly focused on like producing on creative output. 23 00:02:52,542.5 --> 00:02:55,872.5 And yet I think they facilitate connection making. 24 00:02:55,962.5 --> 00:02:57,72.5 So I think about. 25 00:02:57,892.5 --> 00:03:18,692.5 It feels so cliche, but every time I've gone on a run and intentionally just let my brain relax and the kinds, the scenes that come to me are the solutions that come to me or, um, The ideas that play over and over in my head, or the classic thing of, uh, an idea gelling in the shower. 26 00:03:19,322.5 --> 00:03:23,352.5 Uh, but these kind of unplugged places where you let your mind wander. 27 00:03:24,392.5 --> 00:03:31,82.5 And also as a parent, how often I'll see, sometimes see my kids kind of. 28 00:03:32,42.5 --> 00:03:34,562.5 Zoning out or not doing what they're supposed to do. 29 00:03:34,562.5 --> 00:03:39,182.5 And I try to encourage them to do the next task and get the stuff done. 30 00:03:39,632.5 --> 00:03:47,222.5 And I noticed that I often shut down those spaces, um, with the people that I live with. 31 00:03:47,792.5 --> 00:03:49,612.5 So this really had me pull back. 32 00:03:50,222.5 --> 00:03:55,82.5 And interrogate that and think about the value of daydreaming. 33 00:03:55,82.5 --> 00:04:02,822.5 And I heard Joanna Macy in one of her talks talk about the rear view mirror of watching television. 34 00:04:03,92.5 --> 00:04:04,892.5 And I thought that was so interesting. 35 00:04:04,897.5 --> 00:04:07,662.5 That's so often not to dis watching tv. 36 00:04:08,162.5 --> 00:04:31,7.5 You know? It's something we all do and the fact that when we watch tv, we're engaging with oftentimes, What has already been conceived of, instead of going into places that help us to put pieces together of the present to imagine how the future might unfold. 37 00:04:31,307.5 --> 00:04:40,937.5 And I, I just thought, what of watching TV as kind of a, a nostalgic or rearview window, rear view mirror, um, act. 38 00:04:41,177.5 --> 00:04:42,797.5 I thought that was really interesting. 39 00:04:43,907.5 --> 00:04:46,127.5 Well, I think we should dive into your message. 40 00:04:46,187.5 --> 00:04:47,297.5 So yeah, here it's. 41 00:04:50,192.5 --> 00:04:50,642.5 Awesome. 42 00:04:51,182.5 --> 00:05:04,922.5 Our reading this morning is entitled and it's written by Aurora Levins Morales, a Puerto Rican Ashkenazi Jewish feminist author in Hebrew. 43 00:05:05,642.5 --> 00:05:15,332.5 means and you shall Love it, is the name of the oldest fixed daily prayer in Judaism, A prayer that is recited morning and night. 44 00:05:16,36.25055306 --> 00:05:25,36.25055306 Say these words When you lie down and when you rise up, when you go out, and when you return in times of mourning and in times of joy. 45 00:05:25,891.25055306 --> 00:05:28,771.25055306 Inscribe them on your doorposts. 46 00:05:28,801.25055306 --> 00:05:30,391.25055306 Embroider them on your garments. 47 00:05:30,391.25055306 --> 00:05:32,131.25055306 Tattoo them on your shoulders. 48 00:05:32,131.25055306 --> 00:05:34,921.25055306 Teach them to your children, your neighbors, your enemies. 49 00:05:34,921.25055306 --> 00:05:36,811.25055306 Recite them in your sleep. 50 00:05:36,811.25055306 --> 00:05:43,261.25055306 Here in the cruel shadow of empire, another world is possible. 51 00:05:44,181.25055306 --> 00:05:54,241.25055306 Thus spoke the prophet Ro Dalton, all together, they have more death than we, but all together we have more life than they. 52 00:05:55,651.25055306 --> 00:06:03,381.25055306 There is more bloody death in their hands than we could ever wield unless we lay down our souls to become them. 53 00:06:03,641.25055306 --> 00:06:06,181.25055306 And then we should lose everything. 54 00:06:06,331.25055306 --> 00:06:10,431.25055306 So instead, imagine winning. 55 00:06:12,91.25055306 --> 00:06:15,391.25055306 This is your sacred task. 56 00:06:15,901.25055306 --> 00:06:17,281.25055306 This is your power. 57 00:06:17,911.25055306 --> 00:06:25,411.25055306 Imagine every detail of winning the exact smell of the summer streets in which no one has been shot. 58 00:06:25,891.25055306 --> 00:06:33,661.25055306 The muscles you have never unc unclenched from worry gone soft as newborns skin, the sparkling taste of food. 59 00:06:33,666.25055306 --> 00:06:49,771.25055306 When we know that no one on earth is hungry, that the beggars are fed, that the old man under the bridge and the woman wrapping herself in a thin sheet in the backseat of a car, and the children who suck on stones nest under flux of roofs that keep multiplying their shelter. 60 00:06:51,61.25055306 --> 00:07:03,901.25055306 Lean with all your being towards that day when the poor of the world shake down a reign of good fortune out of the heavy clouds, and justice rolls down like waters. 61 00:07:06,1.25055306 --> 00:07:10,561.25055306 Defend the world in which we win, as if it were your child. 62 00:07:11,221.25055306 --> 00:07:12,421.25055306 It is your child. 63 00:07:12,721.25055306 --> 00:07:14,701.25055306 Defend it as if it was your lover. 64 00:07:14,701.25055306 --> 00:07:16,591.25055306 It is your lover. 65 00:07:16,831.25055306 --> 00:07:22,398.75055306 When you inhale and when you exhale, breathe the possibilities of another world into the 37.2 66 00:07:22,398.75055306 --> 00:07:28,21.25055306 trillion cells of your body until it shines with hope, then imagine more. 67 00:07:28,26.25055306 --> 00:07:29,881.25055306 Imagine rape is unimaginable. 68 00:07:29,881.25055306 --> 00:07:42,391.25055306 Imagine war is a scarcely credible rumor that the crimes of our age, the grotesque inhumanities of greed, the sheer and astonishing shamelessness of it, the vast fortunes made by stealing lives. 69 00:07:42,391.25055306 --> 00:07:47,41.25055306 The horrible normalcy it came to have is unimaginable to our heirs. 70 00:07:47,251.25055306 --> 00:07:52,231.25055306 The generation of the free don't waiver. 71 00:07:53,371.25055306 --> 00:07:57,391.25055306 Don't let despair sink its sharp teeth into the throat from which you sing. 72 00:07:58,96.25055306 --> 00:07:59,626.25055306 Escalate your dreams. 73 00:07:59,626.25055306 --> 00:08:05,806.25055306 Make them burn so fiercely that you can follow them down any dark alleyway of history and not lose your way. 74 00:08:05,896.25055306 --> 00:08:11,966.25055306 Make them burn clear as a starry drinking Gord over the grim fog of exhaustion and keep walking. 75 00:08:12,616.25055306 --> 00:08:14,886.25055306 Hold hands, share water. 76 00:08:15,256.25055306 --> 00:08:20,926.25055306 Keep imagining so that we and the children of our children's children may live. 77 00:08:21,548.98950249 --> 00:08:22,908.98950249 What a powerful reading. 78 00:08:25,838.98950249 --> 00:08:27,548.98950249 Let's talk about imagination. 79 00:08:27,788.98950249 --> 00:08:39,548.98950249 My friends, I have packed for a trip while sweating in hot weather and then arrived at my destination to discover. 80 00:08:40,268.98950249 --> 00:08:55,628.98950249 A snowstorm and to discover myself with a suitcase way too full of t-shirts, because I just couldn't imagine and believe while I was so overheated that it could actually be cold somewhere else. 81 00:08:58,418.98950249 --> 00:09:16,238.98950249 When my kids were little babies, I would receive lovely hand-me-downs from a friend with a toddler, and some part of me would actually think, oh, that's nice, but there will never come a day when my little baby will fit into these gigantic monster child pajamas. 82 00:09:17,138.98950249 --> 00:09:19,798.98950249 I mean, two tea, that's just nuts. 83 00:09:22,718.98950249 --> 00:09:48,323.98950249 I have seen and tried to study multiple two-dimensional renderings of this new sanctuary, yet when I finally took an in-person tour, it was like I had seen absolutely nothing prior to that moment because personally, I couldn't yet really imagine that building until I physically walked by its walls in beams. 84 00:09:50,3.98950249 --> 00:09:54,143.98950249 I've always thought of myself as a creative, imaginative person. 85 00:09:54,353.98950249 --> 00:09:55,643.98950249 It's a part of my identity. 86 00:09:55,648.98950249 --> 00:10:06,113.98950249 It's something I do well in some arenas, and yet there are the most simple situations in which my imagination just does not seem to fire. 87 00:10:06,833.98950249 --> 00:10:11,753.98950249 I can't quite imagine that another reality is actually possible. 88 00:10:13,283.98950249 --> 00:10:28,523.98950249 And then there are the places where I actively don't try to imagine many, many times every day of my life where I actively avoid thinking about the future and the implications of my actions. 89 00:10:28,988.98950249 --> 00:10:43,718.98950249 Every time I take out the garbage, every time I fill my car with gas, every time I order something on Amazon or finish a tube of toothpaste or a bottle of contact lens solution, or whatever other plastic packaging I'm discarding. 90 00:10:45,278.98950249 --> 00:11:15,8.98950249 I think it's fair to say that I have made so many efforts over the course of time to not imagine the implications of my everyday actions and to not feel the guilt and sadness and fear they bring up that I've been practicing numbing out more than feeling, and definitely way more than imagining writer and activist, Rebecca Solnit names how these experiences lead to moral injury. 91 00:11:15,908.98950249 --> 00:11:23,438.98950249 Moral injury that stems from the impact on the psyche of witnessing or feeling complicit in something wrong. 92 00:11:25,988.98950249 --> 00:11:36,38.98950249 We try to avoid seeing and thinking about it and adopt a numbing willful obliviousness, which in turn creates inaction over time. 93 00:11:36,698.98950249 --> 00:11:46,58.98950249 In a time when our climate mess demands swift action inspired by imaginations on fire with possibility. 94 00:11:47,198.98950249 --> 00:11:57,128.98950249 This reinforced moral injury generates the exact opposite of what this moment calls for, and that's not what any of us want. 95 00:11:59,48.98950249 --> 00:12:13,748.98950249 We want to feel enliven, connected, empowered, and hopeful, and that's why we are focusing on the practice of Active Hope this month and the work of Eco philosopher Joanna Macy. 96 00:12:14,363.98950249 --> 00:12:21,803.98950249 Who invites us into an ongoing spiritual practice in the form of a spiral comprised of four phases. 97 00:12:21,863.98950249 --> 00:12:30,983.98950249 And whether you realize it or not, over the past weeks, we have been step by step walking through these phases of the spiral. 98 00:12:31,253.98950249 --> 00:12:37,493.98950249 So I'm gonna share them now just to orient us to why we have come to imagination today. 99 00:12:39,23.98950249 --> 00:12:44,513.98950249 The first step of the spiral is gratitude, which grounds us in the present. 100 00:12:44,513.98950249 --> 00:12:50,33.98950249 And I invites us to identify and cherish what we love most about life on earth. 101 00:12:50,293.98950249 --> 00:12:55,133.98950249 Because when we get clear about what we love, we get clear about our true work. 102 00:12:56,243.98950249 --> 00:13:02,603.98950249 And then the next step in the spiral is honoring our pain, which was last week with Kathleen Rudd. 103 00:13:03,908.98950249 --> 00:13:22,938.98950249 This means allowing that underground river of emotions we live with in response to the Earth's suffering to be validated and expressed so that we can see how these painful feelings, which we share with so many other people are also evidence of our love and our deep connectedness to the earth. 104 00:13:24,818.98950249 --> 00:13:33,308.98950249 And then through honoring our pain, we come to the next step in the spiral, which is seeing with new eyes, this is what we're talking about today. 105 00:13:34,388.98950249 --> 00:13:40,508.98950249 And then the fourth step in the spiral is going forth, doing what you can do. 106 00:13:41,228.98950249 --> 00:13:47,798.98950249 Oh my gosh, I spontaneously lost my place here in our script. 107 00:13:48,798.98950249 --> 00:13:57,318.98950249 So it's no mistake that seeing with new eyes what we're talking about today, it can only follow the experience of honoring our pain. 108 00:13:58,338.98950249 --> 00:14:03,798.98950249 And I wanna zoom in now on the connection between those two steps. 109 00:14:03,828.98950249 --> 00:14:08,148.98950249 Honoring our pain and seeing with new eyes for just a moment. 110 00:14:08,148.98950249 --> 00:14:17,398.98950249 Because we live in a culture that is terrified of grief and makes virtually no place for us to acknowledge and process our grief communally. 111 00:14:18,18.98950249 --> 00:14:23,58.98950249 The answer to How are you is fine. 112 00:14:24,138.98950249 --> 00:14:31,128.98950249 If someone shows no outward signs of sadness after losing a loved one, we say they're doing well with their grief. 113 00:14:32,718.98950249 --> 00:14:35,298.98950249 In a workplace, it's typical to be granted. 114 00:14:35,328.98950249 --> 00:14:42,178.98950249 Three days of paid bereavement leave for the loss of an immediate family member, and one day for the loss of other family members. 115 00:14:44,268.98950249 --> 00:14:50,718.98950249 Our bizarre avoidance of grief leaves us with a story that grief has no place in communal life. 116 00:14:51,288.98950249 --> 00:14:54,108.98950249 That sadness signals a kind of failure. 117 00:14:54,723.98950249 --> 00:15:10,473.98950249 And that grief might even be contagious if we talk about it, which is why I love church so much because here we courageously engage with the hardest realities of being human. 118 00:15:10,623.98950249 --> 00:15:15,93.98950249 And indeed we practice practicing together, being human. 119 00:15:15,363.98950249 --> 00:15:16,713.98950249 It's what we do. 120 00:15:18,873.98950249 --> 00:15:31,773.98950249 So this past Tuesday, I pulled into my garage after an evening meeting at church and my daughter, who I really thought would be asleep in bed, stepped out to greet me before the car had even turned off. 121 00:15:32,483.98950249 --> 00:15:38,793.98950249 Hey, where were you mama? And as I thought about how to explain it, I felt a little burst of insight. 122 00:15:40,113.98950249 --> 00:15:43,803.98950249 I was doing one of my favorite things I get to do all week. 123 00:15:44,313.98950249 --> 00:15:47,673.98950249 Actually, I was facilitating grief group. 124 00:15:49,488.98950249 --> 00:15:56,568.98950249 It has been such a gift to facilitate our grief circle this spring together with Joyce Trujillo from our caring team. 125 00:15:57,498.98950249 --> 00:16:13,998.98950249 It's a space for people who are mourning the death of a loved one or of multiple loved ones, and it is such a tender, honest space where no one has to pretend they're okay or perform doing well with their grief. 126 00:16:14,928.98950249 --> 00:16:20,208.98950249 A place where you can say out loud those things that privately make you wonder if you're losing your mind. 127 00:16:21,378.98950249 --> 00:16:30,558.98950249 There is no compulsory cheeriness in this space, no pressure to move on or keep it together or to even make sense. 128 00:16:32,118.98950249 --> 00:16:42,78.9895025 And yet it is also one of the most inspiring places where I get to hang out all week. 129 00:16:43,353.9895025 --> 00:16:50,223.9895025 Because it's a place that can't help but to touch not only the heart, but to touch the imagination. 130 00:16:51,903.9895025 --> 00:17:04,23.9895025 In this group where the shared experience is one of bereavement, that is a feeling bereft like you've been robbed of something, like you have been torn apart. 131 00:17:05,313.9895025 --> 00:17:12,513.9895025 This shared experience generates a community that affirms through its very existence that you are not alone. 132 00:17:13,503.9895025 --> 00:17:14,943.9895025 A community of, yes. 133 00:17:15,63.9895025 --> 00:17:15,903.9895025 Yeah, me too. 134 00:17:16,563.9895025 --> 00:17:19,833.9895025 And I've been there and I'm so relieved. 135 00:17:19,833.9895025 --> 00:17:20,943.9895025 It's not just me. 136 00:17:22,893.9895025 --> 00:17:39,783.9895025 The grief circle can't help but to be an imaginable space, A space to catch a vision of what happens next when the time is right, a vision that continued survival might be possible and that joy might visit you again. 137 00:17:41,298.9895025 --> 00:17:47,298.9895025 A space to hear that someone else has wandered as deeply into the wilderness of grief as you have. 138 00:17:47,838.9895025 --> 00:17:54,588.9895025 But now they've moved on to new coordinates while not having let go of their connection to the person who died. 139 00:17:55,398.9895025 --> 00:18:12,198.9895025 And deep in the imagination, some sparkles of hope light up when we are despairing, when we feel helpless and powerless, it helps to borrow hope and imagination from each other. 140 00:18:14,118.9895025 --> 00:18:25,728.9895025 It's just about impossible to hop directly from being immobilized in despair to actively building the life you wanna live in or to building a better world. 141 00:18:26,28.9895025 --> 00:18:37,8.9895025 And the bridge between these two realms of hopelessness and courageously creating a future you would want to live in is imagination. 142 00:18:38,763.9895025 --> 00:19:05,163.9895025 When we are hopeless and stuck, the next step is to imagine that another world is possible, even if you are definitely not there right now and engaging in that imaginative act, it asks us to make a leap of courage, a leap that sometimes brings us right to the brink of how much vulnerability and heart tenderness we think we can even tolerate. 143 00:19:05,793.9895025 --> 00:19:30,993.9895025 And there might even be some part of us that wonders whether we might be annihilated by crossing threshold into imagining a different reality for ourselves, that there might be some strange part of us that believes that the numbing blanket of hopelessness is somehow safer, even though deep down we know that it will take us out like falling asleep in the snow. 144 00:19:33,453.9895025 --> 00:19:35,523.9895025 So we acknowledge these misgivings. 145 00:19:36,153.9895025 --> 00:19:56,253.9895025 And nevertheless, our work is to work the muscle of the imagination over and over, getting our reps in, opening up to the possibility that life could be different, readying ourselves to catch a vision of what might be possible. 146 00:19:57,33.9895025 --> 00:20:00,363.9895025 And this can happen in different, different ways. 147 00:20:00,753.9895025 --> 00:20:11,343.9895025 It might look like intentionally creating a space to ground ourselves in the present, connect to gratitude for what is, and then asking ourselves what we'd like to have happen. 148 00:20:12,423.9895025 --> 00:20:23,223.9895025 Or it could simply mean allowing ourselves to daydream and choosing to move through life with the gigantic butterfly net of our imagination. 149 00:20:23,253.9895025 --> 00:20:31,744.9895025 Just wide open and waving in the wind and seeing what inspiration might just fly in. 150 00:20:33,948.9895025 --> 00:20:41,238.9895025 Because we can't force inspiration, but we can create a space hospitable to its arrival. 151 00:20:42,348.9895025 --> 00:20:47,688.9895025 We can go out there and buy ourselves a huge butterfly net. 152 00:20:49,758.9895025 --> 00:20:58,828.9895025 This is getting kind of theoretical, so I wanna invite us into some exercises together, All right, Eileen, I'm gonna pause your message. 153 00:21:00,253.9895025 --> 00:21:03,913.9895025 For a minute because you do something really great, which is in the service. 154 00:21:03,913.9895025 --> 00:21:08,653.9895025 You invited people to come up and do some sharing and some reflecting back from people in the audience. 155 00:21:08,653.9895025 --> 00:21:23,503.9895025 And I thought we might do this part of the service a little differently because we're on this podcast and kind of invite people to go through this process of imagining and catching that vision of a different future, um, you know, virtually through this medium of podcast. 156 00:21:23,503.9895025 --> 00:21:24,173.9895025 Does that sound good? Yeah. 157 00:21:24,613.9895025 --> 00:21:25,513.9895025 That sounds great. 158 00:21:25,873.9895025 --> 00:21:38,483.9895025 So, so can you talk us through that kind of, what's the first step in this visioning process? Well, Elise Boldings process involves three levels of visioning, and the first step is all about intentionality. 159 00:21:39,133.9895025 --> 00:21:43,43.9895025 So moving away from kind of generally nebulously. 160 00:21:44,8.9895025 --> 00:21:53,848.9895025 Wishing for good in the future and honing in on what are some clear intentions that we can set, um, and move towards. 161 00:21:54,298.9895025 --> 00:22:14,263.9895025 So what we do in this first step is, Imagine the world 30 years into the future and bolding chose 30 years because this is a time in the future that a lot of us will live to see, and that those people who we love and we're living with right now will leave live to see as well. 162 00:22:14,843.9895025 --> 00:22:19,393.9895025 So why don't we invite people just to take a second to settle themselves. 163 00:22:19,813.9895025 --> 00:22:20,353.9895025 Yes. 164 00:22:21,73.9895025 --> 00:22:25,663.9895025 And, you know, just taking, taking some breath that feel a little bit maybe deeper. 165 00:22:26,643.9895025 --> 00:22:33,493.9895025 Um, You know, even kind of letting, depending on what you're doing, right, if you're, if you're driving, please don't close your eyes. 166 00:22:33,523.9895025 --> 00:22:51,793.9895025 But if you're just sitting and listening, you take a moment, close your eyes, and then just imagine that 30 years into the future, what do you want to see happen? That kind of visions populate your mind. 167 00:22:54,133.9895025 --> 00:22:56,293.9895025 Now, I know everyone's doing this right now. 168 00:22:57,253.9895025 --> 00:23:04,933.9895025 And as they're seeing those visions, is there something that's coming up for you, Elaine? Yeah, I'm seeing clear flowing water. 169 00:23:05,653.9895025 --> 00:23:11,383.9895025 I'm seeing an absence of guns, an absence of violence. 170 00:23:11,563.9895025 --> 00:23:22,3.9895025 I'm seeing people with an abundance to eat and a system of food production where that makes sense and where everybody has enough. 171 00:23:22,543.9895025 --> 00:23:22,693.9895025 Mm-hmm. 172 00:23:22,963.9895025 --> 00:23:25,273.9895025 And let's see, I'm seeing clear. 173 00:23:25,648.9895025 --> 00:23:27,928.9895025 Skies and breathable air. 174 00:23:28,828.9895025 --> 00:23:30,148.9895025 Excellent air. 175 00:23:30,688.9895025 --> 00:23:46,718.9895025 How about you, Sean? What are you seeing? 30 years from now, I'm seeing communities that are really strong, like neighbors who know each other and are committed to each other's wellbeing. 176 00:23:48,148.9895025 --> 00:23:53,958.9895025 Um, and there's a sense of being able to move through conflict differently. 177 00:23:55,228.9895025 --> 00:23:59,488.9895025 Um, the difference doesn't mean need to be in division. 178 00:24:01,468.9895025 --> 00:24:02,968.9895025 Yeah, that's what I'm seeing right now. 179 00:24:05,878.9895025 --> 00:24:06,718.9895025 Wonderful. 180 00:24:08,308.9895025 --> 00:24:15,718.9895025 So what's the, if that's the first step as this intention setting in 30 years, what's the second step of Elise Boundings. 181 00:24:17,158.9895025 --> 00:24:17,698.9895025 Process. 182 00:24:18,238.9895025 --> 00:24:18,568.9895025 Yeah. 183 00:24:18,568.9895025 --> 00:24:24,328.9895025 Well, the second step is great because it takes us perhaps in a surprise direction of moving backwards. 184 00:24:24,338.9895025 --> 00:24:24,628.9895025 Yeah. 185 00:24:24,808.9895025 --> 00:24:26,158.9895025 Into the memory. 186 00:24:26,908.9895025 --> 00:24:39,778.9895025 So the idea with this second phase is that we're unlocking the images that we keep stored in our mental warehouse because our memory can offer us. 187 00:24:40,268.9895025 --> 00:24:43,118.9895025 Um, great clarity of visioning. 188 00:24:43,598.9895025 --> 00:24:57,668.9895025 Um, and all of those images that we have in the bank of our memory, they can help us to kind of populate and imagine with more specificity and depth what could happen in the future. 189 00:24:57,668.9895025 --> 00:25:04,388.9895025 So step two is stepping into a happy childhood memory. 190 00:25:06,313.9895025 --> 00:25:16,273.9895025 So close your eyes, wherever you are or not if you're driving, but take a moment in your imagination and step into a happy childhood memory. 191 00:25:16,663.9895025 --> 00:25:20,23.9895025 It doesn't have to be the entire arc of a story. 192 00:25:20,23.9895025 --> 00:25:27,703.9895025 It could be just a particular place where you felt good, and when you have that happy childhood memory. 193 00:25:29,113.9895025 --> 00:25:57,313.9895025 Start using your inward senses to experience that scene, to see the colors, to feel the textures, to smell the smells, to hear the sounds, and even look around and notice the expression on people's faces, or if there's no one around, just imagine what you might be expressing with your face and your body. 194 00:25:58,313.9895025 --> 00:26:06,683.9895025 And now, and, and during the service, you invited three people, myself included, to come up and do this and then share out. 195 00:26:06,983.9895025 --> 00:26:14,933.9895025 So I'm gonna play the clip of their happy childhood memories of what came to mind in the service. 196 00:26:15,933.9895025 --> 00:26:20,583.9895025 I had a memory of being a small child and being like tucked in at night. 197 00:26:21,93.9895025 --> 00:26:30,723.9895025 And so I'm in my like small, like twin bed and especially like after the sheets had been washed, so there's kind of that fresh smell and kind of climbing in. 198 00:26:30,903.9895025 --> 00:26:33,123.9895025 It's a little bit kind of crisp feeling, but soft. 199 00:26:33,153.9895025 --> 00:26:46,383.9895025 And then my mother would usually come in and like fluff the blanket up and it would kind of land on me and I would just feel the kind of pressure of the blanket, um, kind of pushing down, but feeling warm and cozy. 200 00:26:46,383.9895025 --> 00:26:56,733.9895025 And even if the blanket went over my head, which is a part of the game, was like sometimes it goes over your head, right? And then you can't see anything, but you know you're still safe because there's someone on the other side of the blanket. 201 00:26:57,123.9895025 --> 00:27:02,373.9895025 Um, and then you kind of pull the blanket back and so you're kind of just wrapped up and safe in that kind of bundle. 202 00:27:02,894.0933486 --> 00:27:18,44.0933486 I think it was like July or August, I was going to take my final test for horse riding and I had those special pants on, you know, that have the skinny hair and what is it, John Per John pers. 203 00:27:18,44.0933486 --> 00:27:18,464.0933486 Okay. 204 00:27:18,854.0933486 --> 00:27:19,934.0933486 I had that on. 205 00:27:19,934.0933486 --> 00:27:29,264.0933486 I had, um, a special hat that was on that made, made everyone know I was a beginner so that they didn't gimme the wrong horse. 206 00:27:29,310.7600153 --> 00:27:34,860.7600153 I remember flies and this poor little pony, it was not a horse. 207 00:27:34,890.7600153 --> 00:27:37,170.7600153 Okay? It was, but I wanted to get on a horse. 208 00:27:37,440.7600153 --> 00:27:40,230.7600153 The pony was just covered in these flies. 209 00:27:40,230.7600153 --> 00:27:44,280.7600153 And I would keep doing this and that would make the, uh, pony nervous. 210 00:27:44,460.7600153 --> 00:27:47,820.7600153 And I didn't know that I was making them pony nervous. 211 00:27:48,570.7600153 --> 00:27:55,875.7600153 And, uh, then my, uh, instructor who's on a big horse, He is telling me to calm down. 212 00:27:55,875.7600153 --> 00:27:56,865.7600153 Calm down, Sarah. 213 00:27:56,895.7600153 --> 00:27:57,645.7600153 It's okay. 214 00:27:57,915.7600153 --> 00:28:02,955.7600153 But then the flies, you know, I'm so worried about the horse and being bugged. 215 00:28:03,495.7600153 --> 00:28:04,585.7600153 I can say that, right? Mm-hmm. 216 00:28:05,655.7600153 --> 00:28:10,695.7600153 Um, anyway, it, it happened that I bugged the horse so much. 217 00:28:12,235.7600153 --> 00:28:12,525.7600153 Yeah. 218 00:28:14,535.7600153 --> 00:28:16,35.7600153 He bugged me, all me off. 219 00:28:16,95.7600153 --> 00:28:28,965.7600153 I flew over his head into, you know what? And I remember the smell of getting this stuff off of me, and it never left me. 220 00:28:29,745.7600153 --> 00:28:33,765.7600153 Um, I didn't graduate, but it was a good memory. 221 00:28:37,95.7600153 --> 00:28:39,555.7600153 It's something I go back to a lot when I fail. 222 00:28:41,545.7600153 --> 00:28:49,105.7600153 I was about seven and I was on, uh, at, uh, at summer and we were on Kawaii. 223 00:28:49,765.7600153 --> 00:28:57,115.7600153 And, um, I was in the, the, there's a stream that comes down by our house and, and it forms a pool. 224 00:28:57,415.7600153 --> 00:29:10,795.7600153 And we were the, all, all, all of us and our friends were in the, in this pond from the stream and, um, jumping off the rocks and yelling and splashing and having a good time. 225 00:29:10,795.7600153 --> 00:29:17,575.7600153 And our dog went down the lane a bit and found a dead toad to roll in. 226 00:29:18,460.7600153 --> 00:29:31,420.7600153 And she came back pleased with herself and we tossed her into the pond and grabbed some, uh, things that are called shampoo ginger. 227 00:29:31,690.7600153 --> 00:29:36,230.7600153 And it's a, it's a type of red ginger and it's got gushy stuff inside. 228 00:29:36,370.7600153 --> 00:29:39,460.7600153 That's a really a lot like shampoo and it'll clean your hair. 229 00:29:39,520.7600153 --> 00:29:51,10.7600153 And so we got a bunch of shampoo ginger and we started, you know, weapon the dog with it to make her smell really nice and continue to jump off the rocks. 230 00:29:51,10.7600153 --> 00:30:02,920.7600153 And, you know, you can smell the ginger and you can smell the, the smell of, of, of mountain stream water and you can smell the sunshine that was on us. 231 00:30:03,250.7600153 --> 00:30:13,270.7600153 And here, the, the cries of the children, I don't remember any grownups, but there must have been, um, it just was kids, uh, and the dog. 232 00:30:14,370.7600153 --> 00:30:14,660.7600153 Yeah. 233 00:30:15,670.7600153 --> 00:30:19,860.7600153 And the warmth of the summer I loved how, um, different they all were. 234 00:30:20,160.7600153 --> 00:30:41,400.7600153 Firstly, the memories now that we have those kind of vivid stories in our minds, what's the third and final step? So the third and final step is actually going back to our imaginings about the world 30 years from now that we initially brainstormed about and set our intentions for. 235 00:30:42,660.7600153 --> 00:30:57,240.7600153 So with our imagination, sharpened from having engaged with our memory, um, close your eyes and envision once again, uh, the world 30 years from now. 236 00:30:57,240.7600153 --> 00:30:59,700.7600153 I'm gonna ask you to do it in a very specific way. 237 00:30:59,705.7600153 --> 00:31:00,960.7600153 Imagine yourself. 238 00:31:01,290.7600153 --> 00:31:09,0.7600153 Standing in front of a huge, thick hedge stretching as far as you can see to the left and to the right. 239 00:31:09,780.7600153 --> 00:31:19,20.7600153 And on the other side of this hedge lies the world that we hope for 30 years from now, where the intentions that we identified earlier have been realized. 240 00:31:19,470.7600153 --> 00:31:24,470.7600153 And you can move through the hedge or over the hedge any way you want and have a good look around. 241 00:31:25,590.7600153 --> 00:31:33,720.7600153 And as you're looking, keep in mind that your goal is to be an observer and to collect information that can be reported back on. 242 00:31:35,370.7600153 --> 00:31:49,800.7600153 So, Sean, we did do this imagining with panelists in the service, can we play an excerpt of what they experienced when they looked over the hedge? Yeah, let's play those clips. 243 00:31:50,800.7600153 --> 00:32:01,390.7600153 I, uh, saw like a bunch of like apartments or town homes, but they were all oriented towards this like common courtyard. 244 00:32:01,960.7600153 --> 00:32:05,590.7600153 So it wasn't like houses that were like pointing in different directions, kind of. 245 00:32:05,710.7600153 --> 00:32:07,240.7600153 They were all connected. 246 00:32:08,20.7600153 --> 00:32:16,840.7600153 And in the courtyard it was like, there was garden, there was trees, there were like kids running around and screaming and, and joyfulness of course. 247 00:32:17,200.7600153 --> 00:32:23,170.7600153 Um, and you see people like leave their homes with something to bring to someone else. 248 00:32:23,620.7600153 --> 00:32:28,510.7600153 And so there's this way in which the homes would flow into each other with support and care. 249 00:32:29,280.7600153 --> 00:32:29,700.7600153 Lovely. 250 00:32:31,945.7600153 --> 00:32:34,375.7600153 You mind if mind if I build on that? Yeah, build on it. 251 00:32:34,765.7600153 --> 00:32:49,15.7600153 Um, I have a vision where over the, um, the hedge is, um, our, our towns, it's a town with streets that are no longer for, um, for lanes wide. 252 00:32:49,165.7600153 --> 00:33:07,675.7600153 They've taken the center of the, um, of the road and made trees and plants and gardens and, um, all you hear is, um, an electric bus going, um, around and bells from people on their bicycles. 253 00:33:08,45.7600153 --> 00:33:22,315.7600153 And, um, there's no, um, you know, there's no escaping this, um, loud cars with, um, radios blaring or anything like that. 254 00:33:22,320.7600153 --> 00:33:27,805.7600153 All you really hear are the electric bus and the bells from the bus. 255 00:33:30,775.7600153 --> 00:33:31,285.7600153 Okay. 256 00:33:32,65.7600153 --> 00:33:39,385.7600153 I looked over and the first thing I saw were lots of trees and lots of green. 257 00:33:39,955.7600153 --> 00:33:46,165.7600153 Um, it was like countryside and I had to work hard to see a town. 258 00:33:46,835.7600153 --> 00:33:50,305.7600153 Um, but it was low rather than tall. 259 00:33:51,55.7600153 --> 00:33:57,145.7600153 And, um, and there were people moving about, it was very quiet. 260 00:33:57,595.7600153 --> 00:34:07,195.7600153 Um, no sounds of industry, uh, you know, cars and banging and clanging and that kind of thing. 261 00:34:07,465.7600153 --> 00:34:16,675.7600153 Uh, it was, it was quiet, but what struck me most was the green and the sunshine, the clear skies, the blue skies. 262 00:34:19,195.7600153 --> 00:34:27,955.7600153 So I loved the sensory detail that our panelists shared, the quietness of the bus. 263 00:34:28,555.7600153 --> 00:34:37,45.7600153 Uh, Sean, I could totally imagine the community that you were talking about where people were helping each other out and facing towards each other. 264 00:34:38,145.7600153 --> 00:34:40,635.7600153 And then I love that in Polly's world. 265 00:34:40,635.7600153 --> 00:34:47,855.7600153 It took her a while to even see the buildings, because the trees and the greenness was just so lush and present. 266 00:34:49,245.7600153 --> 00:34:58,305.7600153 I felt transported by their sharing and imagining, and I'm so curious what everyone who's listening, what their visions were. 267 00:34:58,725.7600153 --> 00:34:58,935.7600153 Yeah. 268 00:34:58,935.7600153 --> 00:35:00,285.7600153 You know, and pooling these visions. 269 00:35:00,285.7600153 --> 00:35:05,145.7600153 I, I was also surprised how much more vi vivid my own imagining came to. 270 00:35:06,310.7600153 --> 00:35:12,700.7600153 You know, going through that exercise, um, I'm not a huge vis visual person, but it got me there mm-hmm. 271 00:35:13,175.7600153 --> 00:35:27,730.7600153 In terms of that hedge and, and seeing these, this glimpse of our future that is really based in desire and, and potential and, um, and, and can be cultivated through our active choices. 272 00:35:28,120.7600153 --> 00:35:29,20.7600153 So I love that. 273 00:35:29,890.7600153 --> 00:35:30,550.7600153 Me too. 274 00:35:30,550.7600153 --> 00:35:55,450.7600153 And what really landed for me in the experience of doing these exercises together is that every Sunday just about, we name that each one of us has a piece of the truth, and that we have to come together and share our truths and our experiences and also our visions, you know, to make sense of this life right now and to make sense of where we're headed together. 275 00:35:55,455.7600153 --> 00:35:59,895.7600153 And so, you know, to me, The different visions that came up. 276 00:36:00,225.7600153 --> 00:36:09,855.7600153 They weren't competing visions of the future, but it was like everyone has access to some unique slice of what could be. 277 00:36:10,575.7600153 --> 00:36:15,745.7600153 Um, and that I think is also uniquely relevant to the gifts that they can offer. 278 00:36:17,685.7600153 --> 00:36:18,915.7600153 All right. 279 00:36:18,915.7600153 --> 00:36:25,965.7600153 You have just a little bit left of your message, so we're gonna drop back into that, um, that piece so people can hear Yes. 280 00:36:26,235.7600153 --> 00:36:27,315.7600153 How you wrap this all up. 281 00:36:28,315.7600153 --> 00:36:28,855.7600153 my friends. 282 00:36:28,855.7600153 --> 00:36:32,905.7600153 We all live together on this one amazing planet. 283 00:36:34,75.7600153 --> 00:36:38,925.7600153 And as we journey into the future together, let us hold this truth close. 284 00:36:39,555.7600153 --> 00:36:42,385.7600153 Another world is possible. 285 00:36:42,445.7600153 --> 00:36:43,765.7600153 And here's the thing. 286 00:36:44,365.7600153 --> 00:36:47,995.7600153 Each one of us holds a different piece. 287 00:36:48,415.7600153 --> 00:36:53,35.7600153 Each one of us in this space had a different vision of the future. 288 00:36:53,605.7600153 --> 00:37:02,560.7600153 And that means that each one of us has a different vision to capture about what could be and what work is ours. 289 00:37:02,890.7600153 --> 00:37:08,110.7600153 Because we know as Unitarian Universalists, each one of us holds a piece of the truth. 290 00:37:08,830.7600153 --> 00:37:18,550.7600153 Each one of us is, uh, the world needs us to capture a vision that is uniquely ours so that we can act on it. 291 00:37:20,50.7600153 --> 00:37:24,100.7600153 Now is the time to escalate our dreams. 292 00:37:25,30.7600153 --> 00:37:43,0.7600153 As this morning's reading encourages us, make your dreams burn so fiercely that you can follow them down any dark alleyway of history and not lose your way from where we stand now, moving towards our visions. 293 00:37:43,420.7600153 --> 00:37:48,940.7600153 It might feel as absurd as standing on a beach and packing our suitcase for a snowstorm. 294 00:37:49,675.7600153 --> 00:37:53,815.7600153 As impossible as a little baby growing up into an adult. 295 00:37:54,535.7600153 --> 00:38:02,995.7600153 But we know that very real change unfolds from ideas that once seemed abjectly, unreachable. 296 00:38:03,865.7600153 --> 00:38:14,935.7600153 And indeed, some of our best changes have come from those ideas and imaginations may our collective dreaming invite us into a aliveness. 297 00:38:14,995.7600153 --> 00:38:35,485.7600153 Despite all the uncertainty, may our imaginations lead us into lives deeply worth living because they are lives grounded in meaning and purpose, in generosity, in connection, and grounded in the fierce joy that springs from doing what matters most together. 298 00:38:36,445.7600153 --> 00:38:38,335.7600153 May it be so and amen. 299 00:38:41,137.127272 --> 00:38:46,447.127272 Well that about wraps up this episode of the diva podcast and our series on active hope. 300 00:38:46,867.127272 --> 00:38:49,567.127272 We are moving into a serious that we're called time. 301 00:38:49,567.127272 --> 00:38:50,647.127272 Well wasted. 302 00:38:51,67.127272 --> 00:38:55,747.127272 Which is all about leisure, rest, non productivity. 303 00:38:56,227.127272 --> 00:39:03,577.127272 And pleasure and how these essential aspects of life are actually acts of resistance in a world that tries to commodify us. 304 00:39:04,27.127272 --> 00:39:06,727.127272 Productivity guys, us efficiency, eyes, us. 305 00:39:07,357.127272 --> 00:39:10,267.127272 Um, And how we can lean into that. 306 00:39:10,267.127272 --> 00:39:12,697.127272 So we can lean deeper into our humanity. 307 00:39:13,357.127272 --> 00:39:14,677.127272 That's going to be a great series. 308 00:39:15,97.127272 --> 00:39:16,777.127272 Including a lot of hosts. 309 00:39:17,317.127272 --> 00:39:19,147.127272 Joy, just a lot of joy. 310 00:39:19,447.127272 --> 00:39:27,577.127272 So hope you are stay tuned for that, you know? I've received some really beautiful feedback in the past few weeks about this podcast and how much it means to people. 311 00:39:28,87.127272 --> 00:39:32,887.127272 You know, saying that the messages that they receive are life giving and that they're real medicine. 312 00:39:32,887.127272 --> 00:39:35,47.127272 And so I just wanted to say, thank you. 313 00:39:35,47.127272 --> 00:39:36,937.127272 Thank you for all of you for listening out there. 314 00:39:36,937.127272 --> 00:39:38,677.127272 Some of you, we know some of you. 315 00:39:39,37.127272 --> 00:39:40,477.127272 We don't and that is all. 316 00:39:40,507.127272 --> 00:39:41,107.127272 Okay. 317 00:39:41,887.127272 --> 00:39:45,877.127272 Well, I am going to wrap this up. 318 00:39:46,837.127272 --> 00:39:51,967.127272 As always everyone who contributes financially to the support of our community allows this podcast to take place. 319 00:39:51,967.127272 --> 00:39:56,137.127272 And you can find your way of contributing at foothills, a u.org/give. 320 00:39:56,557.127272 --> 00:40:01,417.127272 Please recommend this podcast to a friend that you might think would resonate with this message. 321 00:40:01,867.127272 --> 00:40:04,987.127272 Subscribe on the places that you're subscribing. 322 00:40:05,347.127272 --> 00:40:08,47.127272 You know, this is a labor of love and we love that. 323 00:40:08,47.127272 --> 00:40:09,967.127272 You're a part of our community until next time. 324 00:40:10,327.127272 --> 00:40:10,687.127272 Thanks.