Jeff Rouse of OurStoryMn.com
Chances are that if you’re reading this blog, you’re a person who identifies with the word “creative”. And if so, you’ve surely had someone say to you, “It’s all in your imagination!”, as if that’s a BAD thing. Gets old, doesn’t it?
It seems to me that the mythical place of imagination is where ideas are generated, where creativity is nurtured, where visions begin to take form and where yesterday’s magic becomes tomorrow’s routine. The ideas that are brewed in this “land of imagination” become the events and productions and goods of tomorrow. Without imagination we’d still be copying books by hand, harnessing horses to buggies and spending a good portion of each day growing and gathering and spinning and mending.
And, to be honest, I don’t believe that would be ALL bad. I think we are in risk of losing touch with our connection to the Land and to Source. I am a believer in the concept of simplicity and love and face time with self and neighbor. But I do love it that with the click of a key I can talk via email or phone with my friend Iris in Israel or Dayle in California, those wonderful grandkids in Wisconsin … or, when we’re both busy, busy, busy, my partner husband, Dan (Hi, Dan), who is at work in his office downstairs. Imagination at work has allowed us in the 21st century to stay connected with our friends and family in ways that our immigrant grandparents never, ever experienced.
Despite my ambivalence about the results of imagination, for me, imagination is Sacred. It is more than coming up with a beautiful sculpture or a clever rhyme. Imagination IS the rhyme. Imagination is both sender and receiver. The rhyme isn’t clever until our receptive energy interacts with the written word. Sort of like how air isn’t breath until a living being takes it in and interacts with it. For me, Imagination is the Sacred Mystery of life itself. The spark. The energy. The wave and the flow and the pulse that makes us – and keeps us – alive.
So, in honor of imagination, I’d like to tell you about a remarkable Imagineer who is sparking connections here in the MidWest. Jeff Rouse, pictured, has started a business called Our Story Minnesota. You can see his work and that of his partner, Denise, plus their platoon of volunteers, at OurStoryMn.com .
Dan and I were fortunate to be able to spend an evening with the Our Story Minnesota people a few weeks ago when I was interviewed on their Women of Sweet Swine County program. Yup. Sweet Swine County, their version of down-home midwest tongue-in-cheek fun and play with a healthy dose of marketing and info sharing thrown in for good measure.
The segment that we taped isn’t yet on-line, but do go check out past offerings. As you smile, or laugh, or grin in recognition of one of the corny jokes or clever phrasings, your receptive energy becomes part of the creative circle without which there would be less energy and less joy and less reason for any of us to get out of bed every morning.
Whistling Through the Cracks 