Artists of all kinds—painters and poets, singers and sculptors alike—know the importance of imagination. On the basis of art alone, we understand that imagination adds beauty of all sorts to our world. At the very least, we can appreciate that other people’s imagination makes our world a more interesting and lovely place.
But our own imagination is a vital spiritual resource. First, imagination helps us interact with the world around us in new and wonderful ways.
Transcendentalist philosopher and Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us of this power of imagination. “A symbol,” he writes in his essay “Poetry and Imagination,” “always stimulates the intellect, therefore is poetry ever the best reading.”
We each were born with the powers of creativity. While we’re not all going to be famous artists or poets or musicians, we each have the faculties to use our imagination to create.
To use these gifts allows us to change our relationship with the world around us.
Today, spend some time imagining.