My very emotional wife Wilma standing before
The Honorable Janice C. Filmon
on July 9th in Room 200 of the Legislative Building,
about to receive an honor
she never ever imagined could be possible,
the Order of Manitoba.
The Honorable Janice C. Filmon
on July 9th in Room 200 of the Legislative Building,
about to receive an honor
she never ever imagined could be possible,
the Order of Manitoba.
Yes, we all have an imagination. With it we imagine things we desire, we hope for or would like to have happen. We see images in our mind of the day ahead, the trip we plan, or the beach we'd like to be at in the dead of winter.
For Wilma, this investiture of the Order of Manitoba was outside the purview of her life. She never even thought about winning any kind of award for doing what she did. It was only when she received "the letter" from the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba saying she'd been "selected" to receive the Order of Manitoba that her imagination went into overdrive thinking about implications, meanings, and then the actual fearful public reception of the award. I, as husband became shock absorber, reality
check person, therapist, encourager, keeper of the facts, normalizer,
congratulater and did I mention reality checker? Ok I did...to mention just a few roles I had to play to modulate that surprised wild imagination gone into overdrive. Wow!
Let me just say, my wifee has an active imagination!
We take "imagination" for granted. This feature of our brain is very active being under-valued and unrecognized for it's valuable and unique function in our brains. We use it much more than we think. It basically runs through our minds like a river, influencing, helping and affecting most everything that happens in our minds as we go about our lives.
For example, when we plan our day, we "imagine in pictures" what we need to do, how long it will take, and then juggle our activities throughout the day to make it work. All this using our imaginations, seeing the day ahead before it happens.
Or, what happens when we invite friends over? We begin imagining with excitement, what we will do to entertain them, the music we play, the conversation we might have, the meal we will serve, where we serve it, will it be in the living room or out in the backyard. All this through our imagination. Playing the video of the event in our minds before it happens.
At the Olympics we see athletes visualize their run, jump, javelin throw with their imagination before they do it. Another "practice" run in their mind reminding themselves of what to do to make it work and win a medal.
This is the work of our imagination. Something that we use constantly but hardly ever realizing it's importance to our lives. I believe we do not appreciate how much we actually depend on imagination in the routine daily activities of our lives. It's huge.
Usually we think only writers and artistic types use their imaginations. It is true, they do but usually they know about it and plan for it to engage at the right time. For example, for this blog, I could have just written down the facts of imagination and left it at that. But, after I'd decided on the facts which in fact is done by the left logical side part of the brain, I purposely moved my thinking over to the creative, imaginative right side of my brain and reconsidered my whole article, how I might express these facts in a creative and interesting way. If your are still reading this, I would say I succeeded.
Now you know that you have an imagination and that whether you know it or not you are using it in everyday life. You cannot say "I don't have an imagination"! Not true. You do.
But now that you know you are blessed with this amazing gift, you can also begin to engage it. You can purposely engage it to create something interesting that has never existed before. You can see it before it's reality. Then you can go about planning and working at being a "creative person" making it happen.
Remember how Wilma's imagination went kind of crazy after she knew she'd be getting this award? Well, it is because of her imagination that she employed in her life's work, working with victims, speaking, writing and so on that made her a candidate for the award in the first place.
So what have you created recently and what will you create and do in the future by engaging your own personal powerful and unique imagination?
For Wilma, this investiture of the Order of Manitoba was outside the purview of her life. She never even thought about winning any kind of award for doing what she did. It was only when she received "the letter" from the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba saying she'd been "selected" to receive the Order of Manitoba that her imagination went into overdrive thinking about implications, meanings, and then the actual fearful public reception of the award. I, as husband became shock absorber, reality
check person, therapist, encourager, keeper of the facts, normalizer,
congratulater and did I mention reality checker? Ok I did...to mention just a few roles I had to play to modulate that surprised wild imagination gone into overdrive. Wow!
Let me just say, my wifee has an active imagination!
We take "imagination" for granted. This feature of our brain is very active being under-valued and unrecognized for it's valuable and unique function in our brains. We use it much more than we think. It basically runs through our minds like a river, influencing, helping and affecting most everything that happens in our minds as we go about our lives.
For example, when we plan our day, we "imagine in pictures" what we need to do, how long it will take, and then juggle our activities throughout the day to make it work. All this using our imaginations, seeing the day ahead before it happens.
Or, what happens when we invite friends over? We begin imagining with excitement, what we will do to entertain them, the music we play, the conversation we might have, the meal we will serve, where we serve it, will it be in the living room or out in the backyard. All this through our imagination. Playing the video of the event in our minds before it happens.
At the Olympics we see athletes visualize their run, jump, javelin throw with their imagination before they do it. Another "practice" run in their mind reminding themselves of what to do to make it work and win a medal.
This is the work of our imagination. Something that we use constantly but hardly ever realizing it's importance to our lives. I believe we do not appreciate how much we actually depend on imagination in the routine daily activities of our lives. It's huge.
Usually we think only writers and artistic types use their imaginations. It is true, they do but usually they know about it and plan for it to engage at the right time. For example, for this blog, I could have just written down the facts of imagination and left it at that. But, after I'd decided on the facts which in fact is done by the left logical side part of the brain, I purposely moved my thinking over to the creative, imaginative right side of my brain and reconsidered my whole article, how I might express these facts in a creative and interesting way. If your are still reading this, I would say I succeeded.
Now you know that you have an imagination and that whether you know it or not you are using it in everyday life. You cannot say "I don't have an imagination"! Not true. You do.
But now that you know you are blessed with this amazing gift, you can also begin to engage it. You can purposely engage it to create something interesting that has never existed before. You can see it before it's reality. Then you can go about planning and working at being a "creative person" making it happen.
Remember how Wilma's imagination went kind of crazy after she knew she'd be getting this award? Well, it is because of her imagination that she employed in her life's work, working with victims, speaking, writing and so on that made her a candidate for the award in the first place.
So what have you created recently and what will you create and do in the future by engaging your own personal powerful and unique imagination?
- "The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense."
- Pablo Picasso
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