by Jane Tawel
August 21,2024
kind and curious- unsplash
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I realized this morning, I had forgotten what hope felt like. Not personal hope necessarily, although maybe that, too; but I had forgotten what hope for others, for friends and family, for strangers, for a nation, for our dear planet, and maybe, just maybe, hope for the whole world felt like. And I realized that much of what I was doing in my small, little way always felt small and little and rather hopeless because somewhere along the line (well, I know when, but…) sometime in the past years, everything I thought I did for good, I was in fact, doing out of fear; and I had decided that all was hopeless after all, so may as well carpe Diem out of depression.
And then I looked at the news, and after so many years of reading and watching news that sent me into spasms of fear, disbelief, anger, angst and absolute world-weariness, I observed some other little people who were dancing and cheering and feeling such hope that they in their small little ways could help some people who had signed on for big tasks and ways to help our nation, and others, and the planet. And this morning, I suddenly thought to myself: What if I kept doing my same small things, my tiny little part, living my little life out of a contagious sense of Hope? What if I refused to let my own fear and the fear-mongering people who paint the world as angry, and negative, and dog-eat-dog, and us against them, steal from my heart and mind one more moment of action and thought done with hope? What if I harnessed today’s hope to strengthen my own resolve to make others feel cared for, to make the planet a bit cleaner and safer, to make my nation a bit more kind and equitable, and to make the people I love no longer feel my anxiety but my irrepressible Hope?
If fear is contagious, then so is Hope. I had to laugh at myself that I had forgotten that we are told that all things will eventually die, except these three: Faith. Hope. Love. I know the tides of fear will rise again, and the way will be rough; there will be many side paths to lead me astray from the Way that leads to peace, joy, hope, and love. But today — I feel a bit irrepressibly hopeful and I plan on laughing out loud, smiling often, and praying not with a trembling fearful heart that thinks perhaps No One is listening, but with a heart filled with Hope that Someone hears our hopeful hearts.
Catch the Hope-Bug today. And may Hope lead us all to hands outstretched and shoulders to the plow, and the firm belief that there is Joy in the Journey of a 1000 steps. I’m taking the first step in Hope today and after so long of taking timid steps on this Life Journey, it feels like dancing.
Jane Tawel 