Starting Over Again

I used to crochet. My mom did all the time – it was a practice of prayer for her.  I showed so much interest in her craft she taught me how to do a Granny Square. I was hooked. I made scarves and vests and simple skirts and blankets. They were all made from that granny square stitch. 

I didn’t think about it as a meditative or prayerful practice but it must have become that at some point. I took my crocheting to school during winter indoor recess and I taught anyone who wanted to learn. 

As I grew and got busy with other things I stopped. Completely. 

This year I found myself in need of  calming practices to keep fear and uncertainty at bay.  I have picked up my crocheting again. I am using a kit to make a blanket of sorts and learning new stitches as I go.

As I wait for the next step of the kit to arrive I am freestyling with some yarn I fell in love with while shopping for my hooks and marker pins. 

So far I have made a scarf which I undid because it was too heavy. I turned it into a different granny square scarf and, unhappy with that I have rewound the yarn once again. I think next I‘ll try a simple jacket of sorts. 

What this reborn skill has done for me is given me time to imagine what I might be able to create with my time and these yarns and needles. And I imagine turning other things into useful creations to share with family and friends. It’s a process and even if my skill is ‘rusty’ for some time yet, I find the imagining of possibilities to have value just the same. 

~Lydia Patrick

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The Keep Going Song

I first heard this song during the pandemic and I found myself listening to it over and over and over again imagining what possibilities it brought to my mind for the future. 

First of all ‘The Bengsons’ are such a gifted and talented group and live their story through their music. They believe in healing humanity through the practice of living with grace and compassion and dignity not just for themselves but for everyone and everything they encounter. 

Once I fell in love with this song I shared it with everyone I could including using it as a reflection during my very next UUCG service during the pandemic. 

For that dark unexpected chilling and frightening time it gave me hope – it is filled with a core energy of living through the darkness and uncertainty that life can bring. 

I never thought we would be in such a dark place of uncertainty again and yet, here we are. Here we are again wondering every day what happened and what we are going to do about it. I am back again looking for hope and something to get me through the days again. 

Now I practice imagining change again. I imagine getting through again. I imagine finding motivation to keep going on again. I imagine finding joy in some little thing every day. I imagine using my rage to clear the cobwebs of my soul and stir me into action. I imagine pollinating joy with my actions. I imagine. I imagine. I keep going on. 

~Lydia Patrick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADgJP10Xnq8  (Live Wire’s Virtual Hour interview with Abigail and Sean Bengson about the song)

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Pure Imagination

This past Sunday the Covenant Choir at UUCG sang “Pure Imagination”, featured in the
cinematic classic, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Our service explored using our imaginations to conceive what talents we each bring to the congregation, past, present and possibly in the future. Part of the lyrics invite us to ponder:


If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There’s nothing to it…


With all the darkness and doubt that is swirling around the world, isn’t it refreshing to think about all the possibilities that still surround us? This is the kind of stuff hope is made of. If we can perceive (dream) of what we could do to change the world, then take steps to do it, then life truly can improve if we all work together to see it through.

One of my dreams is to combine my love of music, language and people and increase my American Sign Language (ASL) skills so that I can assist with bringing ASL interpretation to our congregation. It’s a vision I hope will come to fruition one day with my and others’ efforts.

What talent or vision do you have for your life and community? What small step could you take today to move toward a more equitable and loving world?

~Jen Garrison

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My Greatest Gift

Imagination is my greatest gift. It has always been at the core of my life: it is a tool for use in
professional life, it is the heart of my most enjoyable leisure, and it has been a shield and source of hope in life’s most challenging seasons. I don’t profess any knowledge or understanding of why we’re here or why we’re one of a very small selection of species which demonstrates any evidence of the ability to imagine, but here we are!

Imagination coupled with experience is the basis of most of my work. I am faced with new
challenges each day in my professional life. I work with a great team of individuals who also
have the gift of imagination. We must approach issues like custom products, machinery
breakdowns, personnel conflict, supply chain challenges, and all sorts of other things. These can be daunting concerns, but the continued application of imagination leads to resolution, and we move on to the next thing.

Most of my hobbies and pastimes require imagination. Board games and tabletop games,
woodworking, music, and puzzles of all kinds feed the imaginative mind. I love solving puzzles.
The dopamine rush I get when something clicks is second only to the process. Imagination is
critical to problem solving for me. I seek to understand the parameters of the situation and then imagination runs wild. Why could this happen? What happens if I take this step? How can I anticipate what is next? This imaginative journey sparks joy.

Imagination was also my greatest challenge for many years. My particular flavor of anxiety
manifests as a filter through which all stimulus refracts. I used to think of anxiety as just
“worrying” and felt that it didn’t affect me, but I learned that the part of me that didn’t trust
positive affirmations from others, that couldn’t fathom others wishing friendship with me, and that said anything I accomplished was worthless or just luck. Thankfully, therapy and medication have blunted that edge.

I believe the practice of imagination is part of a healthy and joyous life. It is so embedded in my life that I didn’t think about it as practice but took it for granted that it is this way for everyone. I urge you all to find room for more imagination in your life.

~Ian Van Sice

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The Challenge of Imagination

What do wrestling, geometry and our next big problem have in common?  To be honest, they may have nothing in common for you, but they do for me.  I’ll explain.

When I was in high school, physical education was required for all students every year of their time in high school. In my junior year, our school received a student teacher in physical education. He was tasked with creating six weeks of lesson plans that he would teach and for which he would be evaluated as a new teacher. This guy was a college wrestling athlete, and his six weeks unit with us was teaching us to wreste.  Roll out the mats. Get on the mat, two at a time, and with some basic instruction on the rules and various “legal moves”, we took turns trying out this ancient form of competition. I was immediately drawn to this sport, and it was for this reason alone. Second by second, I had to use my imagination to counter whatever move my opponent  made while simultaneously using my imagination to create my next unknown move against him. Our repertoire of legal moves was surprisingly small. Imagination, it seems, was the key. I had within me the moves we were allowed to use.  Every single wrestling round required fresh imagination, in the moment, for how to use those moves. That was both exhilarating and exhausting. 

So, what about geometry? In my sophomore year of high school, this was the required math class. We seemed to spend a lot of time memorizing theorems and corollaries that defined space and relationships of points in space. Then, the day came when our teacher introduced  us to working on proofs. We were given a problem involving angles, lines and shapes. Using the theorems and corollaries we had memorized, we had to solve the problem and prove why the solution worked. Geometry was my favorite math class simply because each proof given to us to solve required me to use my imagination for how what I knew could be used to figure out what I didn’t know. It suggested to me that I already had what I needed inside of me. The challenge was figuring out how to use it for the problem at hand. 

Wrestling and geometry were both, at first, really intimidating to me. They were unlike other sports and mathematics that I was already familiar with. They represented change, a new way of thinking. And, they required imagination as a basic requirement. 

I didn’t go on to become a wrestling athlete or a mathematician. But, decades later, I remember those experiences as life changing. Oh, and that last piece.  The problem we face today? It is very likely that we, and our allies, have inside of us what we need to navigate it–but imagination is required. 

~Bob Patrick

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Baby Steps, Big Steps

Our grandson is walking. He has been working on this skill for quite some time and we have all supported this process at every opportunity. 

When he started holding his head up I imagined him sitting up one day. 

When he rolled over for the first time I imagined him crawling soon. 

When he was sitting up I imagined what it would be like for him to pull himself up and stand. 

Etc. 

He has gone from this 5 lb amazing infant to someone who prefers now to be vertical AND miraculously keep his shoes on for extended periods of time. I am amazed every time I see him. 

His cousin, now 4 months old herself,  has started realizing her place in space and is lifting and turning her head and rolled over this week in rapid succession after tucking one arm and pushing with the other. 

I am once again imagining the next steps for her. 

They say it is a different kind of love with grandchildren – sweeter and more intense I think. Without the worry of ‘raising them myself’ or wondering ‘when I’ll sleep through the  night again’ there is more time for joy and imagination. 

I imagine all kinds of things for and about them. I imagine them growing up being kind and full of love and compassion for  humanity.  I imagine a better world with them in it. 

And, while I am still drawing breath in this world of ours, I imagine I’ll continue doing the good work I need to do to make this world a better place as well. 

~Lydia Patrick

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Imagine: Honoring Mom

Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky


My mother was a quintessential Beatles fan. She was a teenager when the Fab Four
came onto the music scene in the US. She even wore the hairstyle of many of the young,
screaming fans who greeted them. When she passed away in 2011, I just simply had to
honor her at her celebration of life service with their music. “Imagine”, particularly the
lyrics above, immediately came to mind. There was some tension from some family
members about my song choice, especially because of those lyrics, but my cousin
understood. I was simply honoring my mother and our conversations about faith and our
questions.


You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one


My mom and I had several conversations about the world and what was going on within
it. It’s so uncanny just how much she understood about the world through television,
and her limited interactions with the people around her late in her life. I tried to help her
out of her isolation by taking her shopping and to the library. She told me once that she
wished she had studied library science instead of teaching. I told her I could see her
doing that. It saddens me that her imaginings for her life were muted because of her
health. I have since experienced this in my own life. However, I am giving myself the gift
of connection like I tried to do for Mom. Life may not have ended up like either of us
imagined for ourselves, but we had each other. My experiences have taught me that
connections are what make life worth living.

~Jen Garrison

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