Imagining Yes
I have been intrigued by imagination for as long as I can remember. The very first essay I ever wrote dated November 18, 1963 begins, “I like to think about fairies and witches.” Imagination? You bet.
So you can imagine, I’m sure, that I was delighted to read this quote by poet e.e. cummings:
“I imagine that yes is the only living thing.”
I’ll write it again: “I imagine that yes is the only living thing.”
Think about this for a moment. No really, think on it. I’ve done a lot of thinking about yes over the years, and I came to a rather radical conclusion, if I have to say so myself.
I believe that God constantly looks for ways to say yes to us and our desires. In fact, I can almost stretch myself to believe that God never says no. Oh, sometimes I hear, not yet, but not ever an absolute no unless it would be really bad for me or the planet.
As a result, I try to say yes as much as I can to other people. I look for ways to do what is asked of me that will benefit both me and that other. I look for the yes every time.
Interestingly, one of the things I find that I say quite often in my spiritual direction sessions with clients is a quote from that famous Nazarene rabbi, Jesus. He says, “Let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay.” It means: Say yes and mean yes, or say no and mean no. You will note there is no maybe on His list.
I quote this all the time because it is our responsibility as human to know our own yeses and our own noes. And to stick by them. The thing is that e. e. cummings is right. Yes is a much more living thing than no. That’s why I look for ways to say yes.
Won’t you join me in this practice?
Once you get the hang of it, it makes life so easy.
