Literature Link for July 31, 2022 — Imagination
• “How to Engage Your Imagination As a Spiritual Practice” by Kayti Christian. [nonfiction article, 10 min] “Imagination invites us to breathe, to dream, and to be fully present to the wonder of it all. It can even become a spiritual practice of its own — but we have to choose
it . . . Art helps us flex our imaginations and find a “flow” for our experiences, as professor and art therapy researcher Girija Kaimal tells NPR. That flow, she explains, is “that sense of losing yourself, losing all awareness. You’re so in the moment and fully present that you forget all sense of time and space.” https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/imagination-spiritual-practice
• “When God Was a Little Girl” by David R. Weiss [Children’s book]
“Tell me a story, Daddy… about when God was a little girl.” Susanna’s playful request begins a whimsically profound tale woven between father and daughter. Together they retell the familiar story of creation, but with unexpected twists and insightful turns along the way. The exuberant joy of God’s creative energy sparkles in this tale that honors both interconnection and diversity. Between the gentle wisdom in the text and the beautiful paintings that accompany it, you may never think about God, creation, or yourself in quite the same way.” I liked that the grandfather’s words are in regular text and little Susanna’s are in bold, that God giggled as she began painting the world, that it’s visually “depicted with bright colors and images of children of various ages and ethnicities, and that girls and boys are depicted as sitting, working, and playing together in harmony. The focus is on their equality in this story, as opposed to focusing on their gender differences.”
https://www.amazon.com/When-God-Was-Little-Girl/dp/1641210222?asin=0879465581&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1 For a nice review from a non-religious children’s librarian at from 2016 by Christian Feminism Today, see https://eewc.com/god-little-girl/
• “Positivism” by Naomi Shihab Nye. [poem from a blog about Spirituality and Health]
“Hopeful as a pencil sharpened, / clear as one beam of light landing on the table’s far side. / The children dove into a story and flew far away. / Even those who had never been to an airport / or seen a plane land at close range. / This was our superpower, retaining imagination / in worst days.” Includes audio reading by author. https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2019/11/23/poem-positivism
• Holy Laughter — “Hippos on Holiday” by Billy Collins [a poem by one of my favorite authors] “Hundreds of them would frolic /in the mud of a wide, slow-moving river, / and I would eat my popcorn / in the dark of a neighborhood theater. / When they opened their enormous mouths / lined with big stubby teeth / I would drink my enormous Coke.” The brief commentary after about spiritual imagination is worth a read. https://www.koinoniafarm.org/writings/holy-laughter-hippos-on-holiday-by-billy-collins/
In faith, Dale Dunnigan