We’ve all had times when we thought we saw something only to
find out it was something completely different. The movies over the years have
showed us countless examples of people lost or stuck in the desert thinking
they see water, but once they approach the edge, it’s really not water after
all. Whenever we drive to the cabin, once nightfall approaches, every mailbox
looks like a deer on the side of the road.
Thinking back, I have countless examples of seeing
something, making a lightning-quick assessment of it, labeling it as something
and then realizing my assessment was far off the mark. I’ve never really
thought about this phenomenon before, but as I was gazing out the window, a
stone trash reciptical looked like it
had a vine growing on it. As I was trying to figure out where the vine came
from, if it grew up from a crack in the sidewalk or whether it was potted
inside the vessel and flowing over the edge, I realized there was no vine; it
was just a stone trash can. But my mind was able to create a whole story and
assessment based on something I thought I saw. It was all a figment of my
imagination.
How powerful this is to consider how much impact these
figments have on our lives. We think someone is doing something for one reason
or another, we feel attacked by someone’s words, we hear someone say our name,
or we let our minds run crazy with stories that have nothing to do with
anything. We wrongly accuse people for things we think we saw them do or not
do. We end relationships and cause family rifts because of something we think
we saw or heard. I could go on and on.
The point is, what impact do figments of our imaginations
have on life? Are they harmful? Are they imaginative, creative and helpful? Or
are they neutral and not matter at all?
I don’t know the answers. I just know that paying attention,
learning to see things before judging them or assessing them and always being
curious, we can learn to see when these figments occur and act accordingly
(whatever that means).
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