What if
April 5, 2026
Spring is a season of possibility. Every day, there is a chance I will see something new! Trees are sprouting, birds are returning, and wildflowers are popping up through the ground. As I put on my walking clothes, my mind comes alive with the possibility of it all.
It’s been cloudy and rainy all week, and my camera hasn’t had any action. Even so, the birdsong grows by the day. Meadowlarks, brown thrashers, and red-winged blackbirds have joined the cardinals and robins in filling the air with song. Blue jays are practicing their red-tailed hawk imitations.
Frogs are singing in the soggy fields where just two weeks ago it was bone dry. Trees have sprouted again, replacing the buds that were frost-bitten. I saw the first barn swallow of the year two days ago. Saturday morning, a brisk north wind was blowing, it was 40 degrees, and still I looked out across the lake and saw dozens of tree swallows dancing above the waves for the first time this year.
Every day, I am reminded that something larger is holding it all. I remember that the birds and the trees are guided by their connection to all that is. When I notice, I remind myself that I am guided by that connection too, that it is here even if I can’t feel it.
Most days, I get out of bed with a spring in my step, full of hope, expecting delight. But sometimes when I return home from the lake, I find myself not wanting to get out of my car. I find myself shifting from curious, joyful anticipation to a sense of wondering what monsters are around the corner.
I’ve been practicing bringing that sense of possibility spring provides into the rest of my day. The tool I’m using is asking the question, “What if?”
My brain is off-the-charts creative, and she tends to spin the “what if” scenarios into the most horrific and terrifying options she can think of. If I feel a twinge in my head, she will speculate it could be a brain tumor. Truly, she is a world-class imagineer - it’s just that she’s been trained to go to the worst possible outcome. (A reminder that we need to think about who is training AI!)
Now, when I notice her doing the all-the-worst-possibilities thing, I pause to thank her for trying to keep me safe. I put my hand on my heart and ask, “But what if it works out? What if this is happening for me (or the world) instead of to me (or the world)? What else might be possible?” I repeat this over and over, each time she starts down her well-worn path.
In the last six months or so, I’ve been coming into a better relationship with my body. I’m starting to feel my feelings rather than thinking my feelings. Though I knew I was disconnected from my feelings, it’s kind of startling as I actually start feeling them to realize just how disconnected I was.
Sometimes I have a lot of resistance to feeling what’s there. Here too, I ask a question: “What if it was safe to feel this, then what would I notice?”
The “what if” question has limitless uses. This morning, I was using it to paint a dream of a better world:
“What if we collectively became 1% kinder every day?”
“What if every bird that returns is matched by a single human opening their heart just 1% more?”
“What if we could shift the dynamics so trash is picked up in the park faster than it is dropped?”
“What if the horrific destruction that is happening now opens the door for a huge leap in healing solutions?”
I’ve been accused of being “Pollyanna” before. In college, I was given the nickname “Sweet Polly Purebred”. But I’m not ignoring what’s happening in the world. I see it. I am doing my best to be with it, and these tools are allowing me to start doing that without further disconnection. (Note: Just as I typed this, a cardinal set off my ring doorbell for the first time this spring! It has to be a sign, right?)
In order to be with it, to feel it, I have to draw on something larger than myself. Not on words, rules, or something abstract, but rather on a felt sense of connection, belonging, and love. The “what if” question helps me remember that felt sense is there. It helps to guide me back, slowly, to a feeling sense of that connection. “What if I could feel that connection just 1% more?”
I believe most humans WANT to care, WANT to be kind, and WANT to love and be loved. I believe most humans have been disconnected from a felt sense of being held by culture, experience, and thousands of years of violence. I believe most humans are trying to survive the best way they can.
I also believe that if some of us can start to lift the energy, if some of us can dream a new dream, that we can raise the whole ship. We can’t do it alone, but every time someone can choose hope, can choose kindness, can choose to care, it matters.
All we need is 1% more, repeated every day. 1% more. Imagine if your savings grew by 1% each day, how quickly it would snowball? This is how lasting change occurs. This is how we save the ship. This is how we save ourselves.
Remember that 1% matters.
1% is doable!!
I love this. With all the rain here I’ve had a similar outlook. The world stage hellbent on playing tragedy after tragedy, it’s been work to give proper attention to the more optimistic view. So I appreciate your words here. “What if” indeed. Tomorrow marks 8 weeks since my heart surgery for a new valve. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing but yesterday I got out for my first mountain hike (Mt St Helens) and I felt great! The day before I saw a Muscovy duck and a coyote on my morning walk. The rufous hummingbirds are nesting, swallows have returned and the grebes are in their gorgeous breeding plumage. What if this is the new trajectory? Thanks for the reminder!