blue sky it
3/3 [laughs triumphantly] + a writing exercise
there’s more than a tinge of irony in the timing of this post against the backdrop of the news (and it also has nothing to do with social media). you probably don’t need my help to see the peril. I cannot advise you re stocks. but with all the doomsdaying and doom-saying, sometimes what I need is to pause and look for the opposite—to look for the good…
to blue sky it.
and perhaps that could look something like this:
instead of:
how bad is it gonna get?
is this how it ends?
is this the end for me?
how about:
what seed might be taking root?
what might be beginning here?
how good could things get?
is this a chance to learn and become great at something new?
if you are like me, this is not your native way of thinking. the worst case scenario mode is much more my natural instinct—playing out bummer-y hypotheticals, and using it to adapt my approach. especially in stressful conditions.
the worst case scenario is good at finding the walls.
blue skying it is good at hopping over them.
how to blue sky
one of the ways I practice blue sky-ing is to write. writing is one of the best ways to feel my way to the roots, the thought processes that circle unvoiced in the background… here’s an exercise I use:
S E L F - F I C T I O N E X E R C I S E
write exploratively in each of the categories—this is for you, no one else, so be honest
write from now past death (no afterlife assumptions necessary)
Passive/Neutral: write supposing you coast, in work, your marriage, your relationships, your spiritual life, physical life, etc, with a slight assumption towards gravity (trending downwards)
Bad/Base/Animal/Low: write supposing you begin choosing in the direction of your worst impulses, suppose you indulge them, write exploring what you will be like, what your life will be like, across the rest of your life. (remember, this is for your eyes only)
The Good Life: write supposing you run a good race from now until your death- what might your life look like? the lives of others around you? after your death? be hopeful without indulging fantasy. but go ahead, dream upward.
as you probably guessed, blue sky-ing is practiced in The Good Life section. what I find so refreshing about entering this way of thinking is that it draws me into a wonderful use of my imagination. our imaginations are so often crowded with dull tasks and reactive chores, or they’re out in left field catching wild pop flys from our fearful, anxious side...
dreaming about the good life is deep imaginative work, and it can create for us a big steaming pile1 of imaginative material that we can actually put to use in the world.
“what a yay I feel”
when I look back at the last time I wrote on the good life, I see myself smiling. I see the people around me full and thriving—a truer version of themselves. I see my aspirations and the more beautiful curvatures of my imagination. when I draw my attention back towards these, my deepest hopes, I remind the roots of my own thoughts of what it is we’re growing towards.
and if dreaming can foster a life directed by my deepest hopes, then I want to get better at it.
I frame this imaginative work in the context of the creation narrative in the book of Genesis. I don’t know that God needed to pause and imagine—I tend to think that God functions fully in pondering and in the imaginative splendor of creating simultaneously. but if we are made in his image, or made to image him in the world, then this is part of our identity—part of our inheritance as humankind.
another echo of this concept comes from the biblical author, Paul, when he is closing out a letter to the people of faith in Ephesus, and writes: and now, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…
“more than all we ask or imagine”… what a challenge to the rallying hopeful imagination! “according to his power that is at work within us”… what a profoundly cheering thought!
what would the world look like, if, in our deepest rooted hope, we took our hands and our skills and our resources and bent them towards the greatest good we could imagine?
this is contrary to the current order, or “normal condition”, of things. to practice this way of living in the world is to participate in revolution, albeit a peaceful one—like a tree through the sidewalk, like the grass runs across barrenness, like a river in spate2…
this is the invitation—to participate in our role in creation by looking at the world, even our tiny and seemingly inconsequential corner of it, and with a blue-sky transformative vision, and self-offering love as the active ingredient, to re-imagine what it could become.
I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Wendell Berry, with a poem some of you are probably familiar with. good poetry bears re-reading. enjoy.
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.thanks for being here. I write weekly sharing poetry, songs, musings, thoughts on creative life, and hopefully some encouragement… my first collection of poetry, Snowmelt to Roots, is available in my shop, (or on Amazon). and my music is available here.
tour info is here (with shows coming up in CA).
peace,
Z
sorry, not sorry
in flood state
I love that Wendell Berry poem! On a different note, what was the hymn you closed your concert at Circle with?
Thank you for reminding me this morning of His invitation and equipping. Striving to see with "blue-sky transformative vision". Grateful for your words that speak gently to our aching hearts.