When we are born into this life, we are imbued with complex biological systems that humans need to survive and thrive. As a child starts their journey, day by day, their sensory systems receive information from their caretakers and families. After basic needs are met, a child instantly wants to discover, touch, play, and explore. As a child grows, other systems begin to develop, grow, and thrive in various social settings. Quickly a child begins to ‘read’ approval, rejection, enthusiasm, support, and most importantly love. A child begins to know themselves through other’s feedback, tone of voice, and touch. The shaping begins. Will the child grow in fear and distrust versus curiosity and caring? The fragile systems within a child will easily be traumatized by lack of basic needs and neglect or beautifully ‘watered’ with seeds of compassion, kindness, and love. Your story is important, and we invite you to bring all the memories of your childhood along as you encounter new ideas, people, and cultures.
This book is for all those that are still on a search for inspiration in their life. When one least expects, a pathway of possibility appears. If one is dwelling in fear, they may choose not to take this new path. When confronted with the unknown, fear can discourage this chance to seek and find the seeds of
We are wildly and dangerously free. The more lonely side of being here is our separation in the world. When you live in a body you are separate from every other object and person. Many of our attempts to pray, to love and to create are secret attempts at transfiguring that separation in order to build bridges outwards so that others can reach us and we can reach them. At death, this physical separation is broken. The soul is released from its particular and exclusive location in this body. The soul then comes in to a free and fluent universe of spiritual belonging. (p. 209)
If you were suddenly asked to go on a journey into the unknown in an Irish currach (hand-made boat), would you want to know something of the person who had fashioned the boat, their experience navigating the waters, and what kind of person they are, especially if a life-threatening storm should arise? If it was a true friend, you would no doubt be more likely to step on to the boat with someone who you trust with your life, from love garnered from a single, or any number of precious, sacred, meaningful moments with that person. However, at this time in your life, do you trust your true self and the journey you have taken thus far in your currach? Meaning, do you see yourself as a true friend, that you would trust when facing the unknown in a currach?
Let us take you on a journey to the islands of the emotional and moral imagination. Step into our currach and let us together weave through the back and forth of the waves. You will find comfort when one of the islands appears on your soul’s horizon. You will be introduced to many of our friends as we step off on the islands (both literally and figuratively) to explore a wonder of mystery awaiting our curious hearts and minds. We know as humans we need to be delighted with new experiences to grow closer in wisdom (see Figure 1).
A journey to your true self
Photograph: Clark, 2023
Artists continually search for new experiences, for new openings of possibility and new ways of knowing. Artists give us remarkable insight with their work, mirrors that help us see what is really there. We can choose to have this aesthetic mirror reflect our lives and feelings, in order to find new ways to perceive the world. Don McLean (1971) did just that. He composed the song, American Pie, expressing his sorrows felt with a deep longing for the day’s past, while holding tightly to his memories and emotions within his heart. American Pie may be viewed as a lyrical and memorable wave of nostalgia, a dream of America’s innocence. McLean shares the actual hidden meaning behind one piece of his song lyrics:
McLean’s poetry is as poignant and fresh today as it was when it first appeared on the music scene in 1971. Americans are increasingly nostalgic as the pace of daily life has changed drastically in the last five years. This song captures the American heartland of the past and at the same time, awakens a new vision.
The deep well of memories that have come and gone capture our hearts. On the horizon of our mind’s eye, snapshots of our life appear as we listen to the words. We may for a few seconds look back and cherish the golden memories
Let us together weave the threads from life’s memories into a tapestry of ideas and possibilities. Breath in and out each memory that surfaces from the deep shadowed regions of your mind, heart, and soul. Feel the toss of your life’s waves, as unexplained storms are remembered, always knowing that an island of hope will appear on your horizon.
When you complete the journey to all islands, you will have deepened a personal awareness of the emotional and moral imagination realms within your true self, your soul. Once conscious of the wellspring of possibility sparked from the divine imagination, where the emotional and moral imagination dwell, you now have the freedom to celebrate who you really are, and gently accept the truest sense of your heart’s most important dreams and hopes that were previously neglected and stored away.
We pray that you continue to be blest in all journeys of your life. We pray that you step into your individual currach with no fear, holding on tight to your island tapestry created with us; a symbol of love and confidence to hold onto, guiding your way through all storms. We pray that you will believe that there is always an island of hope on your horizon. Let the waves and threads expand and connect and continue creating, feeling, seeing, and hoping. Come to the “razors edge” and cast off into the unknown. There, you will find peace and the wisdom to understand that there is a purpose for your life, your life is important, and you are needed at this time. Shine light on your many gifts, illuminating the stars in your night sky. This is our time together on this beautiful earth, and together let us not fear the horizon and the islands awaiting our visit.
The following poem is created by a young woman, that dared to step into her currach of possibility. For the first time in her life, she decided to take a chance and “cast off” into the unknown realms of her emotional and moral imagination and set the sails of her heart and mind into the deepest oceans of the blue-violet skies in van Gogh’s painting, The Starry Night (1889). She created a beautiful tapestry of wonder and hope titled, Caught by the Stars. We are grateful to share this beautiful aesthetic with you, that spontaneously appeared on her horizon when she stepped onto her island of hope.
The young poet captures feelings released from her moral imagination; expressing the following: In the mountain I get lost in thought/ The darkness covers me but the light shines through/ Crisp night and stardust/ tells me there is hope. The poem, Caught by the Stars, presents the idea that there may be times in our life we feel darkness has cloaked us, and is weighing down our hearts (Clark, 2020). However, during these times, the light of the imagination is always present within us, waiting to appear. In faith and in prayer, our spiritual light will cast away the darkness; we begin to feel a sense of hope.
There are times in our lives we retreat into darkness due to hurt, loss, or anxiety. At these darkest times in our lives, it is our faith that comforts and gives us the confidence to endure. Hopelessness may make you feel as if you have been planted, stuck, with no way out. However, we have discovered in our lives that during moments of doubt, it is the power of the human imagination, the seeds of hope, faith, patience, and courage, divinely planted when we were created, will give birth to new awakenings and perhaps new wisdom.
When visiting Newgrange, a World Heritage Site in Co. Meath, Ireland, we witnessed a profound metaphysical experience not only personally, but also from the people standing side-by-side next to us within the Newgrange tomb. This otherworldly experience inside the tomb symbolically and metaphorically captures the depths to which the emotional and moral imagination dwell within us, and within the hearts and minds of the ancient people that created, designed, and built this tomb.
It is important to note how these moments and experiences are stored, held closely to the heart, and carried home to become an important part of our work. After visiting Newgrange, one can sense the mystery of the original artists that first noticed, as they stood by the river Brú na Bóinne, the repeated patterns of spirals created by the raindrops. Clearly the people that created Newgrange and lived by the water saw a greater purpose in nature’s patterns. They could see into a two-dimensional water spiral and imagine a three-dimensional design which we now call the ancient mounds; the inner heart of the spiral representing the top of the mound. “When the Celtic imagination raised its eye searching for meaning and for patterns of belonging. It saw in the rhythms and patterns of the stars, and the sun, and the moon, the whole order of the cosmos” (O’Donohue, 2009, 8:44 mins.).
When inside the Newgrange mound and looking up, we could see the massive stones that were carefully placed in an interlocking spiral to hold the weight of the stone. The pattern of spirals appearing in the stream must have also made an impact on the decision to carve a spiral design into the Newgrange entrance stone (see Figure 2). These ancient people were truly artists inspired by nature. How can artificial intelligence and social media compare to these ancient visionaries and what they were able to create? It caused us to pause many times, wondering what we have lost in our modern world.
Ireland is primeval landscape, there still remains here a sense of time that has rhythm. A sense of time is more than calendar time, a rhythm of being in presence that is tuned to the rhythm of the eternal [and you are called to that eternal].
(O’Donohue, 2009, 10:36 mins.)
Photograph: Clark, 2016
Our faith and gratitude for the seed of creativity planted by the divine imagination at birth inspires us to share how nurturing the imaginative realm through our lives has led us to travel to the islands of the emotional and moral imagination. Something internal within us knows, an intuitive sense, that there are seeds of truth awaiting to be shaped for good. At these moments, we believe we are witnessing a miracle from our Creator.
So too can a first light weave its way to your inner creative and spiritual core, where you can also begin to see the light and possibility within others. Countless times, throughout the process of creating this new paradigm, many key spiritual leaders and writers, such as Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Thich Nhat Hanh, Dorothy Day, John O’Donohue, John Moriarty, C.S. Lewis, and countless others, were inspirational, for their lives leave a legacy for us, as they walked a true path of love, truth, faith, forgiveness, wisdom, acceptance, patience, empathy, and courage in their everyday lives. These twentieth century apostles help us understand and grasp the importance of hope, faith, and forgiveness when facing moments in life of suffering, loss, rejection, and pain. Their lives are examples for us to hold onto a conscious realization and belief in the Divine Light that will one day guide our journey home toward a new dawn of eternal life.