Intentions live in our imaginations. We live in a world imagined by our ancestors. It’s a complex, interconnected, wild world (like a swamp!) with underlying patterns and processes that support the one thing constant in this universe– change.

As humans, we have the ability to consciously create change, adapt to change, be the change. We can recognize how change creates us, too. We are nature, we are not separate from it, and we have been gifted through the processes of evolution with the intellect and awareness to know that! And so the future starts in our imaginations and with our intentions. We have different imaginations than our ancestors. In the imaginations of many of our ancestors was tribalism, the sense that others were somehow separate, different, to be feared, or controlled. Yes, this sort of idea still lives in the imagination of many today. But there is a big shift in imagination happening right now with those of us who think the other should be loved, listened to, and lived with, because the other is actually not separate, not other, but is a part of the interconnected us, is the universe just as much as we ourselves are.

Does this live in your imagination? How does it help you form your intentions? Do those intentions become words and actions? Can you think of a time when this didn’t live in your imagination? What were your intentions and actions like then?

How do we shift the collective imagination from idealizing individualism, separateness, and tribalism to the truth of interdependence, cooperation, oneness? That’s the long-time burning question, isn’t it? Are we bold enough to go out in the world and model the change we want to see?

Intentions are in our imagination, and in order for our imaginations to set the stage for future generations, we have to turn those intentions into action, into life. That is where the power to change the world comes from– you, us, and the change we create together in our UUCL community.