Saturday morning I woke to news of escalating conflict in the Middle East. I felt it in my body before I could process it. I felt a heaviness followed by a deep sadness.
War has a way of doing that. Even when it’s in a far-off land.
I think of the innocents who are impacted, children and families waking up to fear and uncertainty. Sunday I was planning to speak about pure imagination, but my planned remarks felt tone deaf given the circumstances. In moments like this, talking about imagination or possibility can feel naïve and disconnected from reality.
Yet I believe there is room for activating consciousness in times of chaos and discord.
In times of conflict, imagination is not an escape. When engaged consciously it is directive.
Standing Between Reality and Possibility
When the world feels unstable, we are often pulled toward distraction or despair. Some are apt to avoid the suffering or minimize fear while still others feel the violence against others deeply.
But spiritual maturity asks something braver of us.
It asks us to stand in the tension between reality and possibility without abandoning either.
“If we do not consciously imagine peace, are we then unconsciously accepting war?” Do we have any agency in situations like this? I believe we do. However it requires that we engage what I’d like to call our ‘spiritual imagination’.
There is a profound difference between wishful thinking and spiritual imagination.
Wishful thinking says, “I hope peace happens.”
Spiritual imagination says, “I will hold a vision of peace and let it guide my thoughts, my words, and my behavior.”
One is passive. The other is directive and participatory.
Walking Without a Map
This fall I will walk a pilgrimage in Spain as part of my sabbatical. Pilgrimages of this sort are not tidy or predictable. One steps forward before being able to see the entire path, trusting the ground before you. You have an idea where it will lead, but you don’t really know for sure how it will go.
That feels like the moment we are living in.
We do not know how the current conflicts will unfold or what tomorrow’s headlines will bring. But we can imagine peace and we can choose to imagine what Charles Eisenstein coined, “A more beautiful world we know is possible.”
And we can choose how we walk out our imagined peace like spiritual pilgrims.
Walking grounded, awake, and guided by something deeper.
“You step forward in faith before you see the whole path.”
Spiritual practice is not about pretending the world is calm. It is about learning to move through turbulence without losing your center.
Imagination as Responsibility
When we allow media, fear, and outrage to become our only mental blueprint, our imagination contracts. And when imagination contracts, so does possibility.
But when we actively imagine the humanity of all sides of any conflict, something in us shifts.
We remember that no life is disposable, and in fact that every life is precious.
This is not sentimental optimism. It is disciplined consciousness.
I am not suggesting that we imagine peace instead of grieving, rather we imagine peace through our grief.
We do not expect healing to take away challenges, we expect healing because engaged consciousness is directive and creative and can turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones.
“Guard your imagination. Aim it toward peace.”
In uncertain times, that may be the most radical thing we can do.
The First Step
Every journey begins with a single step. Sometimes that step is not a grand gesture or sweeping solution.
Sometimes it is simply this: refuse to let fear be the loudest voice in your mind.
Imagine something more beautiful.
Let it guide you.
Walk forward anyway.
Because the world does not only change through policy and power.
It also changes through consciousness — one steady step at a time.
