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From Dave Tomlinson,Ìýwriter and Vicar of St Luke’s Holloway in London:

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One of my favourite weddings was between Bert and Hazel – she was 76, him 85! Bert’s first wife died ten years earlier. But he never accepted this was the end of love in his life.

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Hazel’s son walked her down the aisle; Bert’s granddaughter was his best woman. Two years later, the happy couple moved to New Zealand to live with Hazel’s daughter. ‘I’m off on my next adventure’, he told me, grinning, ‘starting a new life at 87!’

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The poet Mary Oliver writes, ‘Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.’Ìý No one shows me better what that means than Bert and Hazel – allow for unexpected possibilities; never say never.

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For me, imagination is one of our greatest gifts. It’s a capacity that to one degree or another we all have and can develop, like whistling. It’s like a specific muscle in the brain that can be strengthened through practice or exercise. If we really focus, we can soon recall the smell of a sudden shower on a dry city street, or hear our grandma’s voice, or taste strawberries with fresh cream even in the depths of winter.

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But imagination is a faculty that runs both ways: it may inspire hope and optimism, or fuel fear and anxiety – we mostly choose which to cultivate. The problem with fear is that it expands and multiplies rapidly to fill the entire space in our minds, overwhelming positive imagination; the fear is all we can think about.

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Sometimes it’s natural to fear – being told I’d had a heart attack, eight years ago, obviously felt frightening. And sometimes we need to fear – it’s wise to be afraid of a grizzly bear if I meet one on the Holloway Road! But mostly, fear and anxiety bring unnecessary suffering.

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‘Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable’ reminds me about the childlikeness Jesus said we should never lose. Children always have plenty of room for the unimaginable. There’s an openness to life in children that I, for one, too easily lose amid worry, anxiety or cynicism.

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I’ve no idea where Bert and Hazel are now, but I treasure what they taught me: to exercise my positive imagination muscles, to welcome new adventures, and to ravish each day like a feast with friends.

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