July 20, 2025 • 30 mins
Delbert and Hess love, love this topic—Imagination!
In this Sunday morning chat, join us for our discussion about imagination. Imagination is the bridge from the reactivity of the limbic brain—fight, flight, freeze—into the broad expanse of the potential and unlimited possibilities in the universe! We again, talk about Delbert’s Papaw, and how imagination kept him alive in the 104th division of the U.S. Army in Europe in WW 2. Papaw had a wife and family to come home to. He continued that practice in all of his life, and inspired his children and grandchildren to continue using imagination. Imagination moves us from fear based thoughts, connects us to our hearts and moves us to a broader sense of reality that is love based. Delbert and Hess share their own personal stories of imagination making their life what it is today. Peace and Love, think about imagination and it moving you forward to the next best step!
Tara Brach's website and talk about imagination: https://www.tarabrach.com/the-healing-power-of-imagination-part-1/
I am still collecting for José's cancer treatments. We are awaiting the next CT Scans that will tell you where he is after his second round of treatments. Thank you for your continued support!
https://gofund.me/e6f61999
In addition to being a podcast host, Hess is also an LCSW--if you'd like to learn more about her work as a therapist, check it out at www.jessicabollinger.com
One of her mission's is for all of our lights to shine--when we see each other and allow ourself to be seen--and we can say to the person in front of us, There You Are! the world will be an amazing place!
Delbert is a top realtor in Louisville, KY, and you can find her at Kentucky Select Properties She will help you find your home, and also help you get the most equity when you sell your house.
Her philanthropic work to continue her sister Carole and niece Meghan is Carole's Kitchen. Blessings in a Backpack helps feed the many hungry students in our schools. The instagram account is: https://www.instagram.com/caroleskitchen.nonprofit?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Hess (00:01):
Hey you all, thanks for tuning in and listening to our
Sunday morning chat.
I'm Hess and I'm sitting on thewhite chair.
I'm sitting in the white chairlooking out my bedroom window
out at the green grass and theasparagus growing up in the
garden and the tomatoes and somered tomatoes starting to red up.
(00:21):
So here I am.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Delbert (00:24):
Morning, everybody.
Of course.
I'm on the green couch thismorning and it stormed last
night, but it, I'm looking outthe picture window.
It is a beautiful day today.
It's gonna be gorgeous out
Hess (00:37):
Thanks for the weather report.
Delbert, you always give theweather report from the green
couch
Delbert (00:42):
as always.
The weather, the unofficialweather report of Louisville,
Kentucky
Hess (00:48):
yeah.
Delbert (00:48):
I would.
Hess (00:49):
Everybody, when we say, I'm sitting on my, I'm sitting
in my white chair, Delbert saysshe's sitting in her green, on
her green couch.
It, it might evoke yourimagination of what it looks
like where we are.
And that's what Delbert and Iwanna talk about today is
imagination.
I was inspired more about this.
Bert on my drive back fromCanada, pulling the Relation
(01:11):
Ship I was listening tobeautiful Tara Brach.
She's a Buddhist.
Meditator, philosopher,psychologist and her theme on
this podcast I was listening towas Imagination, the healing
power of transformation, and weweaved in and out of imagination
(01:31):
a lot in all the things we'vetalked about, Delbert, and I
just wanted to really give anemphasis to the subject of
imagination on our talk thismorning.
Delbert (01:41):
It's a great idea.
I was just telling Hess rightbefore we.
Recording that I've just beenmindful of imagination this week
because we said we were gonnatalk about it and it's really in
every part of our life.
That's good.
Whether you're a basketballplayer and you're envisioning
that play that shot, or ifyou're a developer, a planner.
(02:03):
All our neighborhoods that welive in last night I was.
Downtown in Central Park at thisbeautiful park that the Olmsted
Brothers designed.
And it's just so gorgeous, inthe middle of the city, this
beautiful park with playgroundsand tennis courts and little
splash park.
And it's also where two of themost wonderful things about
(02:25):
Louisville collide.
We have a beautiful park system,beautiful outdoors.
And many of the parks aredesigned by the Olmsted brothers
who designed Central Park in NewYork City.
But we also have a fantastic artscene.
And Shakespeare in the park iswhere those two worlds collide.
And they've got a beautifulstage with a little amphitheater
(02:49):
set up down there so that youcan go and sit out under the
stars and watch, the Shakespeareplayers perform and they usually
do two or three plays everysummer.
But I just thought about theimagination that went into
designing that park and thenalso just, oh, the beauty of
(03:09):
that stage that those setdesigners did.
Simin is one of the playsthey're doing the summer, and it
just looks like a big fairytalecastle, just almost sitting on
an oak tree.
It's just gorgeous.
So anyway.
That was my experience lastnight.
My youngest darling was atShakespeare camp and they always
perform right before the themain play, so that's how I ended
(03:34):
my week with imagination.
What about you, Hess?
What's coming up for you?
Hess (03:38):
Delbert, you talking about imagination, A landscape
architect like, like the Olmstedbrothers and J Frederick Olmsted
designing Central Park.
He also designed the groundsthere at the Biltmore Mansion in
nor in Ashville, North Carolina.
Talk about imagination walkingaround and being able to
imagine.
How plantings could be donestreets or roads, driveways how
(04:04):
things could be laid out.
And then imagining what kind offlaura or fauna would be best be
placed different places, what animagination.
And then it grows into that.
I love that.
I love that example of IroquoisPark that you're saying.
Delbert (04:23):
Central Park, but I has an amphitheater too.
But yes.
Hess (04:27):
Okay.
You're at Central Park.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Delbert being in, in my field ofmental health, what I know about
the brain is when we've had abad experience, that limbic
brain, it goes into a shutdownstate of fear, and we become
then disconnected from ourhearts.
And our brain, though it'swired, it's wired to move into
(04:50):
that negative, that limbic.
It's What's bad, so that it canprotect us.
So it does it out of protection.
It does compare, contrast, andit goes into a fear and judging.
So a whole lot of times, Bert,in our Sunday conversations,
we've talked about being able tofeel what's happening, being
able to feel what the limbics,like making this fear and
(05:12):
allowing the feeling of it.
Don't push it down, don'tdistract, feel it, and then move
forward to the next best step.
We said that often.
So Delbert, one of the next beststeps is imagination, right?
Delbert (05:26):
Yes, it's the God within.
Hess (05:30):
Love that.
Delbert our listeners have alsoheard us oftentimes talk about
your papaw and when he was youngand he was already married, he'd
already started a family when hewent into the army.
During World War ii, and he wasenlisted in the a hundred fourth
division, and that division wasan amazing division that did
(05:50):
they, it was a walking infantryand the way that they, they
covered like 20 miles a day andso forth.
They were in bunkers.
Your dad was, your papapa wasone of the lone survivors in one
bunker experience of war.
So like many people who were inthose trenches.
They experience very hard thingsand your papa having that family
(06:13):
and that hope to come home tothat probably started to feed
that imagination of being ableto return, having this good
thing to come home to likeVictor Frankel talks about in
his book.
You experienced firsthand one ofhis tools, the imagination that
helped him survive.
Like when he told you the storythat Gussy, when Gussy had to be
(06:35):
euthanized when Gussy had beenattacked by that big dog, your
papa said as you all weregetting ready to move to a new
house, your papa you the story.
Oh, gussy got married.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Gussy.
Gussy had, somebody come by andpropose and they went off to go
start a family, that wasimagination.
Delbert (06:55):
Pretty little girl dachshund.
And in, in doing that, heencouraged my imagination.
'cause I wondered what kind ofhouse they would live in if
they'd.
Have China and silver.
I didn't know, but my papa andmy dad had built gussy, this
really cute doghouse in ourbackyard that had a little light
bulb in it and little shingleson his roof and everything.
It, all of that beautifulimagination it sparked it for.
(07:20):
The grandchildren and hischildren as well.
Yeah, it was a great gift and Ido imagine that Hess, I imagine
him in those foxholes andwalking those, back roads for,
miles on end, imagining what hislife was gonna be like when he
got home and he manifested that.
I tell my darlings to do thatall the time.
Something that they want, theydream about, they desire for the
(07:43):
future.
I say manifest that.
Really think about how you canmake that a reality and manifest
that.
Hess (07:51):
I love that it was so special.
I might not be talking to youtoday, Delbert, if you had not
had.
Influence of your papa and allthat good time that you got to
spend with him.
I'm so thankful for it myself,just being affiliate, affiliated
with you, being your friend.
Delbert (08:07):
Oh.
It was it was a magical way togrow up as his grandchild.
And I'm so thankful for itreally am.
And he instilled that in all ofus.
My oldest darling wrote an essayabout the hundred and fourth,
and you had to create aninteraction with the person.
And my oldest darling imaginedthat they appeared to him in a
(08:29):
dream and said, don't give up.
And I'm like, that could wellhappened.
Look what the future generationsare gonna be like.
Here's a, and just met'em on oneof the streets, that they were
sleeping on one of the roads andjust said, don't give up.
Hess (08:44):
What an imagination your oldest darling had to do their
report that way.
Delbert (08:48):
I know, right?
So I love that.
And I'm like, that could haveactually happened, so anyway
just keeping all that divinewithin us alive, especially,
when we're going through hardtimes, so important To keep that
divine in, in our lives.
I was telling Hess after Ilistened to that podcast that
(09:12):
you sent me, I didn't get tolisten to all of it'cause I
listened to it while I wasdriving and working.
But I did listen to about halfof it.
It was very good.
And so it made me wonder aboutthis wonderful imagination that
we have and how sometimes peoplehave the same idea in different
parts of the world at the sametime.
(09:32):
Calculus was discovered by twopeople at the same time or close
together.
Photography, a lot of art, formsof art, so many things.
Theory of evolution.
So CS Lewis and JR Tolkien, Iwas listening to a podcast about
this conversation that they had,and JR Tolkien, he says, the
(09:56):
fact that there are fairytalesin every part of the world that
came about.
Around the same time, andthey're all similar and that is
the divine in our lives that.
Hess (10:12):
Wow.
Fairytales told over the worldin different places that have
the same threads running throughthem.
That's part of the divine Wow.
Delbert (10:22):
Yeah.
And I thought, wow, wouldn't youhave loved to have been there
for that conversation, those twowalking down, but also just what
a great message.
What a great, it'ssynchronicity.
It's zeitgeist the spirit oftime.
All of those things, they'rejust so incredible and they're
such a phenomenon.
(10:43):
She also quoted Thomas Merton,who is from here in Kentucky at
the Gethsemane Monastery.
He lived there when he wasalive.
Do you have, do you wanna saythat quote.
Hess (10:53):
Yeah.
So Thomas Merton, one of ourKentucky owned, he says.
Life is simple.
We're living in a world that'sabsolutely transparent and the
divine is shining through it allthe time.
Wow.
Delbert (11:09):
And he said, that's not just a nice story.
That's a fact.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that the design
Hess (11:18):
I
Delbert (11:18):
is shining through.
Hess (11:18):
often.
Delbert (11:19):
Yeah.
Hess (11:20):
I often tell my clients, Hey, look around.
Everything's a miracle.
Look at, be in awe.
Look at, look around at all themiracles that are just right,
even so close to you.
Delbert (11:33):
Exactly.
Hess (11:34):
the opposite.
The opposite.
Like when we envision thatdanger, when the limbic brain
gets frozen, we don't feel likea way forward.
We gotta stop and feel it and goto that mindfulness that Tara
Brach talks about and helpspeople connect to, and then we
can connect to the largerreality.
we then we can imagine what'spossible and move forward.
(11:57):
It's so important in our timesright now where we feel like
things are going awry.
Take some deep breaths, feel it,and what can you imagine that
could be possible?
And then take the next beststep.
And I can imagine, Delbert youexperience this a lot with real
estate, if a deal falls throughif a seller pulls out or a buyer
(12:17):
pulls out and a house does or ahouse doesn't pass inspection,
boom, I know immediately.
You might feel disappointmentfor your client and so on, but
you've had enough experiences ofknowing that there is gonna be
something good and it will turnout right.
So it's our past experiences ofgood things then that we can
(12:40):
connect to and fire ourimagination up to imagine that
it's all gonna work out.
Delbert (12:46):
Exactly.
And.
Because, I've been doing it forso long.
I always tell people we're gonnakeep doing the next right thing
and we're gonna find the perfecthouse for you.
You just gotta believe.
And if something happens alongthe way, like a bad inspection,
we've gotta walk away from thatand know that the right house is
out there.
This just wasn't it.
We thought it might be, but it'snot.
(13:07):
Yeah, we just gotta keep movingforward and
Hess (13:12):
Right.
Delbert (13:12):
keep knowing that the right thing is out there.
We just gotta keep movingtowards it.
And I liked what you touched ona minute ago about the
negativity.
The imagination is not anythingthat would make you hate someone
that would cause you to think,you know about conspiracy
theories.
That's not an imagination.
(13:33):
That's not a good use of yourimagination.
Hess (13:36):
That's the fear.
Delbert (13:37):
That's the fear.
Yeah.
So don't be confused by that.
Especially in times like these,keep the light inside of you.
Hess (13:46):
Yeah, your imagination can take my imagination can take me
to the place of a more just andloving world.
And, we talk here, Delbert aboutthe helpers and they're
everywhere.
I use my imagination and I seethe helpers, I see the people
saying, no, this isn't right.
The people that are speaking upthe people that are trying to
right some wrongs and so then myheart can relax and I can feel
(14:10):
safe.
so right now going on in mylife, I'm not having much
contact with our son, and I misshim, but I've had so many great
loving experiences with him.
It's easy for me to imaginethose and then I move forward to
that.
I move forward to those andthat's what I envision.
And it's not difficult to do.
(14:31):
Our imagination, it energizesus.
There's so much potentialDelbert for goodness to keep
evolving and getting better.
Another, yeah, anotherKentuckian, bell Hooks.
She wrote this beautiful book Igot called Love.
She analyzes love.
She says, imagination createsthe future.
(14:52):
It's not a passive mirror, it'sa tool for transformation.
Delbert (14:58):
That's beautiful.
Hess (15:00):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Albert Einstein says,imagination is more important
than knowledge.
is limited.
Imagination encircles the world.
Delbert (15:11):
Yes, it's boundless as we see from people who think
about the same things at thesame time in opposite parts of
the world.
It really, our good imaginationbrings us together and binds us
and, I love that we're making upon our quotes because we started
slacking a little on that andnow we're making up for it with
(15:31):
all these great quotes we'redoing in one.
There you go.
Listeners, we're catching up onquotes today.
Hess (15:38):
Delbert, tell your listeners again how you use your
imagination when you do yourmorning stretches.
Delbert (15:46):
Oh are you talking about the gold light?
Hess (15:49):
Gold light, baby, gold light
Delbert (15:51):
This is something I shared with our Barkley Village,
and it was actually taught to meby one of the people in the
Barkley Village, Leslie.
So when I do my prayers in themorning and I meditate, the last
thing that I do is I imagine abeautiful gold light around my
children and grandchildren andtheir partners.
And and then I stretch it out.
(16:13):
To all my friends and family andI have to stretch it all the way
up to Lexington for Hess andLucas and Cathy And then I
stretch it all the way down toSouth Carolina for my little
brother.
And then I get it to go all theway over the United States.
And then I imagine it going tothe whole world.
(16:34):
And sometimes I focus ondifferent places where there's
trouble, like the Ukraine orGaza and Israel.
I, just, I.
I shine it everywhere and justask God and Mother Mary, I
believe, I pray to Mother Mary alot because I'm Catholic, but I
ask her to just watch overeverybody.
Just keep us all safe and in hergold light of love.
Hess (16:55):
Yeah.
Delbert (16:55):
And that's how I start the day.
Once I've got that going on, andI think I've said this before,
but then I'll just text my kids.
If they're having a rough time,I'll say, your force field's up.
Go about your day.
You're covered.
Go.
You're good.
You got this, you got the MotherMary gold, light, and when we
were in Bethany, we would watchthe sunrise in the morning and
then we'd put that gold lightout to the whole world.
(17:17):
Think of all the power behindthat with the whole Barkley
Village.
Yeah.
Hess (17:22):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
love that.
I love that.
So you imagine all of that.
I love that.
Yeah, so the intentionality ofthat it move towards the
imagination.
then we're not frozen.
We're not in the freeze.
The fight, the flight Brain.
Delbert (17:43):
the negativity right.
Hess (17:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you pointed this out and Igotta say it.
Let me tell you this about that,that limbic brain, Is so small.
It's only a few inches across.
It's so small and it's based infear.
Old stories, confabulation.
It's small, but theimaginations, like you say, it's
so expansive.
(18:05):
It covers everywhere.
It covers the universe.
Delbert (18:09):
Stretch it out there for good.
Yeah.
Hess (18:12):
And as you said you do a prayer to God and to, to Mary
and Tara Brach says that somepeople use prayer to facilitate
imagination.
So that's one way that you couldcall that, right?
Delbert (18:26):
Yes.
Hess (18:28):
Yeah.
We're 67 years old and we'veseen a lot, been around a lot.
And do you remember Sundaynights, the Walt Disney Show?
Delbert (18:38):
Oh
Hess (18:39):
be on
Delbert (18:39):
gosh.
I live for that.
That and the Wizard of Oz, eventhough it scared the Jesus outta
me.
And I'd have to end up on mydad's chair, but usually like on
top of his head or somethingwhen the witch came.
But yes, I lived for The Wizardof Oz and that was once a year
and the world of Disney.
Oh, talk about that.
Hess (18:58):
Was that what it was called?
The World of
Delbert (19:00):
The wonderful world of Disney, remember?
And then, they'd play, the worldis a carousel of color.
That was the opening.
And they'd show like a, it wasthe first time I'd ever seen
like a camera sped up so theflower would open, they'd,
Hess (19:14):
wow.
Delbert (19:14):
They'd have all the magic of all nature and the
universe.
And they showed this whole likekind of collage, this like film
collage of all these beautifulthings and things that Walt
Disney thought about.
And then Tinkerbell would do herlittle wand and it would go to
black and then it would startthe, it would start the, that
(19:36):
week's episode.
Yeah.
Hess (19:38):
Tinker Bell would float up.
There was the castle, and she'dfloat up to the very top turret
and then she'd ting.
And this little tinkler Tinklewould go off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
so awesome.
So beautiful.
And you all, when we weregrowing up, everything was black
and white and the wonderfulworld of Disney was one of the
first shows to go to color.
(20:01):
Yeah.
Delbert (20:02):
great.
And you just sit there in frontof the TV on Sunday night and.
Watch it with your family.
It was so great.
I never, I could, oh.
I would just be like, I can'twait for the wonderful world of
Disney and what's gonna be theshow tonight?
Hess (20:17):
And yeah, and it wasn't a Disney movie or anything like
that.
I don't know.
I forget exactly what would bethe content, but my mom would
always usually fix chili in thewinter on Sundays, and I could
smell chili in the kitchen.
Delbert (20:32):
Chilly and Walt Disney World, what could be better?
But sometimes it would be acartoon and other times it would
be like, like almost like asituation comedy.
Just, I think it had a lot to dowith what they were working on.
We'll have to Google that andtalk about it Because I remember
a lot of shaggy dog stuff and Iremember some little
(20:54):
commercials.
Cartoons but it was alwaysgreat.
Didn't matter.
Hess (21:01):
The point is, and the point is this is
Delbert (21:03):
Here is the point.
Yeah.
Hess (21:05):
Is the limbic will go to freeze, breathe, feel it, and
then open yourself to up toimagination.
And then imagination opens theway then in which we can act and
move forward and do the nextbest thing.
Boom.
Mic drop.
Yeah.
Delbert (21:23):
Boom.
That's all you need to say.
Hess (21:25):
Yeah.
Delbert (21:26):
Yeah.
Hess (21:26):
It's we can use it in sports.
There's an event going on thisweekend and people doing their
dressage test.
And when I used to compete, I'dimagine doing my dressage test
and I would picture it and seeit going fluidly.
And then when I do the, stadiumjumping.
I'd walk the course and then I'dpractice over some jumps, and
(21:47):
then I would imagine and pictureit all flowing and going well,
and the cross country there.
There you're galloping acrossfields and into water and over
jumps and you walk the course afew times and then I would just
sit and I would imagine it andimagine it all going well, and
then it does
Delbert (22:06):
Yeah.
Hess (22:06):
boom.
You, you went drive by and youdrove past the signs for the
real estate company that youwork with now, and you imagined
yourself working for them
Delbert (22:18):
I did, I manifested that and I told my broker when I
interviewed with her that I saidI saw your signs.
I love the weather vein and I.
I recognize the names, as peoplemy dad's done business with and
respects, and I just, I know Idon't have any experience, but I
manifested being here.
(22:39):
And yeah,
Hess (22:41):
Yeah.
You and you sold yourself withthat.
Yeah.
You imagine yourself
Delbert (22:45):
she liked it.
Hess (22:46):
that when you are
Delbert (22:47):
She liked it.
Yeah.
And she turned into be awonderful mentor for me too.
So Sue must love her.
Love her.
She's retired now, but I.
I had a, I was very fortunate tohave a wonderful mentor and I
have wonderful bosses still.
Hess (23:04):
Yeah.
Yeah and we talked last weekabout surrounding yourself with
the people that
Delbert (23:09):
Exactly.
And that's part of it.
I really believe that, if yousurround yourself with good
people,
Hess (23:15):
Yeah.
When
Delbert (23:16):
successful.
Hess (23:17):
Delbert, I used to take my pen and paper and do all kinds
of drawings of barns and what mybarn would look like and which
horses I would have, what theywould look like and so forth.
And here when I was 27, I.
Onto the farm carried station.
My dad and I went to a bunch ofdifferent barns and looked at
barns and laid out all thefences and stuff, and it's kinda
(23:42):
like j Frederick Olmsted, justhow this
Delbert (23:44):
Right.
Hess (23:45):
Yeah.
So the good things happen withimagination, and they make your
heart and soul feel better.
Delbert (23:52):
They do.
Hess (23:53):
Yeah.
Oh, imagination.
I imagine myself with the fruitmarket, but then also when I
thought about doing going backto school and getting going into
counseling work where I couldhelp couples.
my, I had a border here at thefarm, Joanne Bell, one of the
wisest, smartest people in thewhole world.
She would read like sevennewspapers a day.
(24:13):
She said, Jess let me sit downwith you and you tell me where
you picture yourself, what youwanna be doing.
Whoa.
And then she, after thatdiscussion, she said, okay, I
think getting the Master's ofsocial work would be your best
avenue.
So she evoked my imaginationthat gave us information, and
then she was able to give me aroadmap to get there.
Delbert (24:37):
And you.
Yeah.
And she helps you manifest that.
And again, just being around theright people, surrounding
yourself with the right people.
I gotta go be around the rightpeople right now, the right
clients.
I've gotta go to a constructionsite in just a little bit.
So I gotta jump off here and Iknow you've got a client coming
but we love you friends, and wehope that you have a wonderful
(24:59):
imagination filled Week.
Hess (25:03):
Yes, life.
I'd see people on the on thetrip, on my cruise and they'd
say, Hey, have a good day.
And I'd say, Hey, have a goodlife.
Delbert (25:14):
there you go.
Don't limit it to one week orone day.
Just have a damn good life.
All right.
Hess (25:21):
Bert, I noticed that we have some really good reviews,
some beautiful
Delbert (25:25):
Oh, nice.
Hess (25:26):
I'd like to invite all of you all listening to please stop
and give us a review.
We love you all and we'll betalking to you next week.
care.
Delbert (25:35):
We love you friends.
Hey you all, thanks for tuning in and listening to our
Sunday morning chat.
I'm Hess and I'm sitting on thewhite chair.
I'm sitting in the white chairlooking out my bedroom window
out at the green grass and theasparagus growing up in the
garden and the tomatoes and somered tomatoes starting to red up.
(00:21):
So here I am.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Delbert (00:24):
Morning, everybody.
Of course.
I'm on the green couch thismorning and it stormed last
night, but it, I'm looking outthe picture window.
It is a beautiful day today.
It's gonna be gorgeous out
Hess (00:37):
Thanks for the weather report.
Delbert, you always give theweather report from the green
couch
Delbert (00:42):
as always.
The weather, the unofficialweather report of Louisville,
Kentucky
Hess (00:48):
yeah.
Delbert (00:48):
I would.
Hess (00:49):
Everybody, when we say, I'm sitting on my, I'm sitting
in my white chair, Delbert saysshe's sitting in her green, on
her green couch.
It, it might evoke yourimagination of what it looks
like where we are.
And that's what Delbert and Iwanna talk about today is
imagination.
I was inspired more about this.
Bert on my drive back fromCanada, pulling the Relation
(01:11):
Ship I was listening tobeautiful Tara Brach.
She's a Buddhist.
Meditator, philosopher,psychologist and her theme on
this podcast I was listening towas Imagination, the healing
power of transformation, and weweaved in and out of imagination
(01:31):
a lot in all the things we'vetalked about, Delbert, and I
just wanted to really give anemphasis to the subject of
imagination on our talk thismorning.
Delbert (01:41):
It's a great idea.
I was just telling Hess rightbefore we.
Recording that I've just beenmindful of imagination this week
because we said we were gonnatalk about it and it's really in
every part of our life.
That's good.
Whether you're a basketballplayer and you're envisioning
that play that shot, or ifyou're a developer, a planner.
(02:03):
All our neighborhoods that welive in last night I was.
Downtown in Central Park at thisbeautiful park that the Olmsted
Brothers designed.
And it's just so gorgeous, inthe middle of the city, this
beautiful park with playgroundsand tennis courts and little
splash park.
And it's also where two of themost wonderful things about
(02:25):
Louisville collide.
We have a beautiful park system,beautiful outdoors.
And many of the parks aredesigned by the Olmsted brothers
who designed Central Park in NewYork City.
But we also have a fantastic artscene.
And Shakespeare in the park iswhere those two worlds collide.
And they've got a beautifulstage with a little amphitheater
(02:49):
set up down there so that youcan go and sit out under the
stars and watch, the Shakespeareplayers perform and they usually
do two or three plays everysummer.
But I just thought about theimagination that went into
designing that park and thenalso just, oh, the beauty of
(03:09):
that stage that those setdesigners did.
Simin is one of the playsthey're doing the summer, and it
just looks like a big fairytalecastle, just almost sitting on
an oak tree.
It's just gorgeous.
So anyway.
That was my experience lastnight.
My youngest darling was atShakespeare camp and they always
perform right before the themain play, so that's how I ended
(03:34):
my week with imagination.
What about you, Hess?
What's coming up for you?
Hess (03:38):
Delbert, you talking about imagination, A landscape
architect like, like the Olmstedbrothers and J Frederick Olmsted
designing Central Park.
He also designed the groundsthere at the Biltmore Mansion in
nor in Ashville, North Carolina.
Talk about imagination walkingaround and being able to
imagine.
How plantings could be donestreets or roads, driveways how
(04:04):
things could be laid out.
And then imagining what kind offlaura or fauna would be best be
placed different places, what animagination.
And then it grows into that.
I love that.
I love that example of IroquoisPark that you're saying.
Delbert (04:23):
Central Park, but I has an amphitheater too.
But yes.
Hess (04:27):
Okay.
You're at Central Park.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Delbert being in, in my field ofmental health, what I know about
the brain is when we've had abad experience, that limbic
brain, it goes into a shutdownstate of fear, and we become
then disconnected from ourhearts.
And our brain, though it'swired, it's wired to move into
(04:50):
that negative, that limbic.
It's What's bad, so that it canprotect us.
So it does it out of protection.
It does compare, contrast, andit goes into a fear and judging.
So a whole lot of times, Bert,in our Sunday conversations,
we've talked about being able tofeel what's happening, being
able to feel what the limbics,like making this fear and
(05:12):
allowing the feeling of it.
Don't push it down, don'tdistract, feel it, and then move
forward to the next best step.
We said that often.
So Delbert, one of the next beststeps is imagination, right?
Delbert (05:26):
Yes, it's the God within.
Hess (05:30):
Love that.
Delbert our listeners have alsoheard us oftentimes talk about
your papaw and when he was youngand he was already married, he'd
already started a family when hewent into the army.
During World War ii, and he wasenlisted in the a hundred fourth
division, and that division wasan amazing division that did
(05:50):
they, it was a walking infantryand the way that they, they
covered like 20 miles a day andso forth.
They were in bunkers.
Your dad was, your papapa wasone of the lone survivors in one
bunker experience of war.
So like many people who were inthose trenches.
They experience very hard thingsand your papa having that family
(06:13):
and that hope to come home tothat probably started to feed
that imagination of being ableto return, having this good
thing to come home to likeVictor Frankel talks about in
his book.
You experienced firsthand one ofhis tools, the imagination that
helped him survive.
Like when he told you the storythat Gussy, when Gussy had to be
(06:35):
euthanized when Gussy had beenattacked by that big dog, your
papa said as you all weregetting ready to move to a new
house, your papa you the story.
Oh, gussy got married.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Gussy.
Gussy had, somebody come by andpropose and they went off to go
start a family, that wasimagination.
Delbert (06:55):
Pretty little girl dachshund.
And in, in doing that, heencouraged my imagination.
'cause I wondered what kind ofhouse they would live in if
they'd.
Have China and silver.
I didn't know, but my papa andmy dad had built gussy, this
really cute doghouse in ourbackyard that had a little light
bulb in it and little shingleson his roof and everything.
It, all of that beautifulimagination it sparked it for.
(07:20):
The grandchildren and hischildren as well.
Yeah, it was a great gift and Ido imagine that Hess, I imagine
him in those foxholes andwalking those, back roads for,
miles on end, imagining what hislife was gonna be like when he
got home and he manifested that.
I tell my darlings to do thatall the time.
Something that they want, theydream about, they desire for the
(07:43):
future.
I say manifest that.
Really think about how you canmake that a reality and manifest
that.
Hess (07:51):
I love that it was so special.
I might not be talking to youtoday, Delbert, if you had not
had.
Influence of your papa and allthat good time that you got to
spend with him.
I'm so thankful for it myself,just being affiliate, affiliated
with you, being your friend.
Delbert (08:07):
Oh.
It was it was a magical way togrow up as his grandchild.
And I'm so thankful for itreally am.
And he instilled that in all ofus.
My oldest darling wrote an essayabout the hundred and fourth,
and you had to create aninteraction with the person.
And my oldest darling imaginedthat they appeared to him in a
(08:29):
dream and said, don't give up.
And I'm like, that could wellhappened.
Look what the future generationsare gonna be like.
Here's a, and just met'em on oneof the streets, that they were
sleeping on one of the roads andjust said, don't give up.
Hess (08:44):
What an imagination your oldest darling had to do their
report that way.
Delbert (08:48):
I know, right?
So I love that.
And I'm like, that could haveactually happened, so anyway
just keeping all that divinewithin us alive, especially,
when we're going through hardtimes, so important To keep that
divine in, in our lives.
I was telling Hess after Ilistened to that podcast that
(09:12):
you sent me, I didn't get tolisten to all of it'cause I
listened to it while I wasdriving and working.
But I did listen to about halfof it.
It was very good.
And so it made me wonder aboutthis wonderful imagination that
we have and how sometimes peoplehave the same idea in different
parts of the world at the sametime.
(09:32):
Calculus was discovered by twopeople at the same time or close
together.
Photography, a lot of art, formsof art, so many things.
Theory of evolution.
So CS Lewis and JR Tolkien, Iwas listening to a podcast about
this conversation that they had,and JR Tolkien, he says, the
(09:56):
fact that there are fairytalesin every part of the world that
came about.
Around the same time, andthey're all similar and that is
the divine in our lives that.
Hess (10:12):
Wow.
Fairytales told over the worldin different places that have
the same threads running throughthem.
That's part of the divine Wow.
Delbert (10:22):
Yeah.
And I thought, wow, wouldn't youhave loved to have been there
for that conversation, those twowalking down, but also just what
a great message.
What a great, it'ssynchronicity.
It's zeitgeist the spirit oftime.
All of those things, they'rejust so incredible and they're
such a phenomenon.
(10:43):
She also quoted Thomas Merton,who is from here in Kentucky at
the Gethsemane Monastery.
He lived there when he wasalive.
Do you have, do you wanna saythat quote.
Hess (10:53):
Yeah.
So Thomas Merton, one of ourKentucky owned, he says.
Life is simple.
We're living in a world that'sabsolutely transparent and the
divine is shining through it allthe time.
Wow.
Delbert (11:09):
And he said, that's not just a nice story.
That's a fact.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that the design
Hess (11:18):
I
Delbert (11:18):
is shining through.
Hess (11:18):
often.
Delbert (11:19):
Yeah.
Hess (11:20):
I often tell my clients, Hey, look around.
Everything's a miracle.
Look at, be in awe.
Look at, look around at all themiracles that are just right,
even so close to you.
Delbert (11:33):
Exactly.
Hess (11:34):
the opposite.
The opposite.
Like when we envision thatdanger, when the limbic brain
gets frozen, we don't feel likea way forward.
We gotta stop and feel it and goto that mindfulness that Tara
Brach talks about and helpspeople connect to, and then we
can connect to the largerreality.
we then we can imagine what'spossible and move forward.
(11:57):
It's so important in our timesright now where we feel like
things are going awry.
Take some deep breaths, feel it,and what can you imagine that
could be possible?
And then take the next beststep.
And I can imagine, Delbert youexperience this a lot with real
estate, if a deal falls throughif a seller pulls out or a buyer
(12:17):
pulls out and a house does or ahouse doesn't pass inspection,
boom, I know immediately.
You might feel disappointmentfor your client and so on, but
you've had enough experiences ofknowing that there is gonna be
something good and it will turnout right.
So it's our past experiences ofgood things then that we can
(12:40):
connect to and fire ourimagination up to imagine that
it's all gonna work out.
Delbert (12:46):
Exactly.
And.
Because, I've been doing it forso long.
I always tell people we're gonnakeep doing the next right thing
and we're gonna find the perfecthouse for you.
You just gotta believe.
And if something happens alongthe way, like a bad inspection,
we've gotta walk away from thatand know that the right house is
out there.
This just wasn't it.
We thought it might be, but it'snot.
(13:07):
Yeah, we just gotta keep movingforward and
Hess (13:12):
Right.
Delbert (13:12):
keep knowing that the right thing is out there.
We just gotta keep movingtowards it.
And I liked what you touched ona minute ago about the
negativity.
The imagination is not anythingthat would make you hate someone
that would cause you to think,you know about conspiracy
theories.
That's not an imagination.
(13:33):
That's not a good use of yourimagination.
Hess (13:36):
That's the fear.
Delbert (13:37):
That's the fear.
Yeah.
So don't be confused by that.
Especially in times like these,keep the light inside of you.
Hess (13:46):
Yeah, your imagination can take my imagination can take me
to the place of a more just andloving world.
And, we talk here, Delbert aboutthe helpers and they're
everywhere.
I use my imagination and I seethe helpers, I see the people
saying, no, this isn't right.
The people that are speaking upthe people that are trying to
right some wrongs and so then myheart can relax and I can feel
(14:10):
safe.
so right now going on in mylife, I'm not having much
contact with our son, and I misshim, but I've had so many great
loving experiences with him.
It's easy for me to imaginethose and then I move forward to
that.
I move forward to those andthat's what I envision.
And it's not difficult to do.
(14:31):
Our imagination, it energizesus.
There's so much potentialDelbert for goodness to keep
evolving and getting better.
Another, yeah, anotherKentuckian, bell Hooks.
She wrote this beautiful book Igot called Love.
She analyzes love.
She says, imagination createsthe future.
(14:52):
It's not a passive mirror, it'sa tool for transformation.
Delbert (14:58):
That's beautiful.
Hess (15:00):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Albert Einstein says,imagination is more important
than knowledge.
is limited.
Imagination encircles the world.
Delbert (15:11):
Yes, it's boundless as we see from people who think
about the same things at thesame time in opposite parts of
the world.
It really, our good imaginationbrings us together and binds us
and, I love that we're making upon our quotes because we started
slacking a little on that andnow we're making up for it with
(15:31):
all these great quotes we'redoing in one.
There you go.
Listeners, we're catching up onquotes today.
Hess (15:38):
Delbert, tell your listeners again how you use your
imagination when you do yourmorning stretches.
Delbert (15:46):
Oh are you talking about the gold light?
Hess (15:49):
Gold light, baby, gold light
Delbert (15:51):
This is something I shared with our Barkley Village,
and it was actually taught to meby one of the people in the
Barkley Village, Leslie.
So when I do my prayers in themorning and I meditate, the last
thing that I do is I imagine abeautiful gold light around my
children and grandchildren andtheir partners.
And and then I stretch it out.
(16:13):
To all my friends and family andI have to stretch it all the way
up to Lexington for Hess andLucas and Cathy And then I
stretch it all the way down toSouth Carolina for my little
brother.
And then I get it to go all theway over the United States.
And then I imagine it going tothe whole world.
(16:34):
And sometimes I focus ondifferent places where there's
trouble, like the Ukraine orGaza and Israel.
I, just, I.
I shine it everywhere and justask God and Mother Mary, I
believe, I pray to Mother Mary alot because I'm Catholic, but I
ask her to just watch overeverybody.
Just keep us all safe and in hergold light of love.
Hess (16:55):
Yeah.
Delbert (16:55):
And that's how I start the day.
Once I've got that going on, andI think I've said this before,
but then I'll just text my kids.
If they're having a rough time,I'll say, your force field's up.
Go about your day.
You're covered.
Go.
You're good.
You got this, you got the MotherMary gold, light, and when we
were in Bethany, we would watchthe sunrise in the morning and
then we'd put that gold lightout to the whole world.
(17:17):
Think of all the power behindthat with the whole Barkley
Village.
Yeah.
Hess (17:22):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
love that.
I love that.
So you imagine all of that.
I love that.
Yeah, so the intentionality ofthat it move towards the
imagination.
then we're not frozen.
We're not in the freeze.
The fight, the flight Brain.
Delbert (17:43):
the negativity right.
Hess (17:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you pointed this out and Igotta say it.
Let me tell you this about that,that limbic brain, Is so small.
It's only a few inches across.
It's so small and it's based infear.
Old stories, confabulation.
It's small, but theimaginations, like you say, it's
so expansive.
(18:05):
It covers everywhere.
It covers the universe.
Delbert (18:09):
Stretch it out there for good.
Yeah.
Hess (18:12):
And as you said you do a prayer to God and to, to Mary
and Tara Brach says that somepeople use prayer to facilitate
imagination.
So that's one way that you couldcall that, right?
Delbert (18:26):
Yes.
Hess (18:28):
Yeah.
We're 67 years old and we'veseen a lot, been around a lot.
And do you remember Sundaynights, the Walt Disney Show?
Delbert (18:38):
Oh
Hess (18:39):
be on
Delbert (18:39):
gosh.
I live for that.
That and the Wizard of Oz, eventhough it scared the Jesus outta
me.
And I'd have to end up on mydad's chair, but usually like on
top of his head or somethingwhen the witch came.
But yes, I lived for The Wizardof Oz and that was once a year
and the world of Disney.
Oh, talk about that.
Hess (18:58):
Was that what it was called?
The World of
Delbert (19:00):
The wonderful world of Disney, remember?
And then, they'd play, the worldis a carousel of color.
That was the opening.
And they'd show like a, it wasthe first time I'd ever seen
like a camera sped up so theflower would open, they'd,
Hess (19:14):
wow.
Delbert (19:14):
They'd have all the magic of all nature and the
universe.
And they showed this whole likekind of collage, this like film
collage of all these beautifulthings and things that Walt
Disney thought about.
And then Tinkerbell would do herlittle wand and it would go to
black and then it would startthe, it would start the, that
(19:36):
week's episode.
Yeah.
Hess (19:38):
Tinker Bell would float up.
There was the castle, and she'dfloat up to the very top turret
and then she'd ting.
And this little tinkler Tinklewould go off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
so awesome.
So beautiful.
And you all, when we weregrowing up, everything was black
and white and the wonderfulworld of Disney was one of the
first shows to go to color.
(20:01):
Yeah.
Delbert (20:02):
great.
And you just sit there in frontof the TV on Sunday night and.
Watch it with your family.
It was so great.
I never, I could, oh.
I would just be like, I can'twait for the wonderful world of
Disney and what's gonna be theshow tonight?
Hess (20:17):
And yeah, and it wasn't a Disney movie or anything like
that.
I don't know.
I forget exactly what would bethe content, but my mom would
always usually fix chili in thewinter on Sundays, and I could
smell chili in the kitchen.
Delbert (20:32):
Chilly and Walt Disney World, what could be better?
But sometimes it would be acartoon and other times it would
be like, like almost like asituation comedy.
Just, I think it had a lot to dowith what they were working on.
We'll have to Google that andtalk about it Because I remember
a lot of shaggy dog stuff and Iremember some little
(20:54):
commercials.
Cartoons but it was alwaysgreat.
Didn't matter.
Hess (21:01):
The point is, and the point is this is
Delbert (21:03):
Here is the point.
Yeah.
Hess (21:05):
Is the limbic will go to freeze, breathe, feel it, and
then open yourself to up toimagination.
And then imagination opens theway then in which we can act and
move forward and do the nextbest thing.
Boom.
Mic drop.
Yeah.
Delbert (21:23):
Boom.
That's all you need to say.
Hess (21:25):
Yeah.
Delbert (21:26):
Yeah.
Hess (21:26):
It's we can use it in sports.
There's an event going on thisweekend and people doing their
dressage test.
And when I used to compete, I'dimagine doing my dressage test
and I would picture it and seeit going fluidly.
And then when I do the, stadiumjumping.
I'd walk the course and then I'dpractice over some jumps, and
(21:47):
then I would imagine and pictureit all flowing and going well,
and the cross country there.
There you're galloping acrossfields and into water and over
jumps and you walk the course afew times and then I would just
sit and I would imagine it andimagine it all going well, and
then it does
Delbert (22:06):
Yeah.
Hess (22:06):
boom.
You, you went drive by and youdrove past the signs for the
real estate company that youwork with now, and you imagined
yourself working for them
Delbert (22:18):
I did, I manifested that and I told my broker when I
interviewed with her that I saidI saw your signs.
I love the weather vein and I.
I recognize the names, as peoplemy dad's done business with and
respects, and I just, I know Idon't have any experience, but I
manifested being here.
(22:39):
And yeah,
Hess (22:41):
Yeah.
You and you sold yourself withthat.
Yeah.
You imagine yourself
Delbert (22:45):
she liked it.
Hess (22:46):
that when you are
Delbert (22:47):
She liked it.
Yeah.
And she turned into be awonderful mentor for me too.
So Sue must love her.
Love her.
She's retired now, but I.
I had a, I was very fortunate tohave a wonderful mentor and I
have wonderful bosses still.
Hess (23:04):
Yeah.
Yeah and we talked last weekabout surrounding yourself with
the people that
Delbert (23:09):
Exactly.
And that's part of it.
I really believe that, if yousurround yourself with good
people,
Hess (23:15):
Yeah.
When
Delbert (23:16):
successful.
Hess (23:17):
Delbert, I used to take my pen and paper and do all kinds
of drawings of barns and what mybarn would look like and which
horses I would have, what theywould look like and so forth.
And here when I was 27, I.
Onto the farm carried station.
My dad and I went to a bunch ofdifferent barns and looked at
barns and laid out all thefences and stuff, and it's kinda
(23:42):
like j Frederick Olmsted, justhow this
Delbert (23:44):
Right.
Hess (23:45):
Yeah.
So the good things happen withimagination, and they make your
heart and soul feel better.
Delbert (23:52):
They do.
Hess (23:53):
Yeah.
Oh, imagination.
I imagine myself with the fruitmarket, but then also when I
thought about doing going backto school and getting going into
counseling work where I couldhelp couples.
my, I had a border here at thefarm, Joanne Bell, one of the
wisest, smartest people in thewhole world.
She would read like sevennewspapers a day.
(24:13):
She said, Jess let me sit downwith you and you tell me where
you picture yourself, what youwanna be doing.
Whoa.
And then she, after thatdiscussion, she said, okay, I
think getting the Master's ofsocial work would be your best
avenue.
So she evoked my imaginationthat gave us information, and
then she was able to give me aroadmap to get there.
Delbert (24:37):
And you.
Yeah.
And she helps you manifest that.
And again, just being around theright people, surrounding
yourself with the right people.
I gotta go be around the rightpeople right now, the right
clients.
I've gotta go to a constructionsite in just a little bit.
So I gotta jump off here and Iknow you've got a client coming
but we love you friends, and wehope that you have a wonderful
(24:59):
imagination filled Week.
Hess (25:03):
Yes, life.
I'd see people on the on thetrip, on my cruise and they'd
say, Hey, have a good day.
And I'd say, Hey, have a goodlife.
Delbert (25:14):
there you go.
Don't limit it to one week orone day.
Just have a damn good life.
All right.
Hess (25:21):
Bert, I noticed that we have some really good reviews,
some beautiful
Delbert (25:25):
Oh, nice.
Hess (25:26):
I'd like to invite all of you all listening to please stop
and give us a review.
We love you all and we'll betalking to you next week.
care.
Delbert (25:35):
We love you friends.
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