We made it through 2020! Welcome, 2021, Welcome!
I am so grateful the calendar has turned its pages, grateful for an incoming less-racist, more science-guided administration, grateful to be on the road to a coronavirus vaccine, grateful just to put 2020 to bed. Still, coming into this new year didn’t have its usual gusto.
Our January 2021 theme is “Imagination,” which fits for the first month of a new year. Yet I find myself scraping the edges of my consciousness for the creative energy and hope imagination requires. In the winter of this pandemic, some moments will include the space and energy for imagination, and others will just be time to rest and refill the tank.
Imagination is powerful when the energy for it is there. Not only does it return as much energy as it requires, it creates new realities! Imagination can change individual lives, when a person can imagine a different way of living, and it can change our collective reality, when we can imagine a better world together. The Rev. Jacqui Lewis says, “Imagination is our most potent political resource. Our ability to envision a future guided be revolutionary love is what will take us there!” One step on the road to a more just future is engaging in the anti-racist work of Beloved Conversations: registration for the Spring semester begins next month (see more information on page 9).
Imagination is a potent resource for transformation. It takes energy, but it gives it back exponentially. May we find the time, space, and energy to imagine the lives we want, the community we want, and the world we want this month. What would a sustainable, just, and beautiful life, community, world be like? Let those dreams nourish you as you nourish them this January.
With love, Rev. Jennifer Nordstrom