What is hope? And why is hope so important?

I went down a research wormhole the other day on a concept I’ve been obsessed with for about a year now: HOPE.

I’ve read books, listened to podcasts, and read more blogs than I can count about:

• What hope means
• What hope does
• How hope helps us
• The effect of hope on the human brain (yay neuroscience!)

 And I am not anywhere near done.

When I started writing this series, at the end of 2022, I was in a stuck place with my writing and my life.

I wondered how many other people were feeling stalled, stuck in their own disappointments–or how we’re collectively disappointed, angry, and seemingly stuck in some pretty phenomenal messes.

I wondered how hope might impact my life and the lives of others around me simply if I started talking about it more.

Now, in November 2023, as we’re witnessing horrific violence in the Eastern Mediterranean and a seriously worrisome rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia…

Not to mention the approximately 5-6 other genocides/mass violence taking place around the world while governments refuse to listen to their people’s calls for peace…

Now more than ever, I felt the need to revive this project on hope.

What I’ve found over the course of the last year is that there is always a way forward, even when the options look bleak or scary or we don’t believe they’re possible.

I believe (and scientists and researchers agree) that the way forward, and all roads to anywhere good really, must begin with hope.

At this point in human history, I’ve witnessed a great deal of crying out;

“What’s wrong with us?”

“Humans are awful.”

“Humans are destroying the planet.”

“Humans are destroying each other.”

And it’s true… It’s just not the WHOLE truth.

There is greed, oppression and violence, yes, BUT there are also so many people out there working to do good, spread kindness, and heal others–physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically.

People working to revive devastated ecosystems…

Practice organic and regenerative farming or slow fashion…

Feed the hungry and house the homeless..

Rescue victims of human trafficking and slavery, 

Fight for the freedom from oppression, justice, and human rights, and so so much more.

This is all happening, right now, and we all have an opportunity to be a part of it.

Your heart breaking, your grief welling up, your confusion, your overwhelm… that is your invitation. A sense that this is not right is all you need to get started.

Well, and hope, especially the active kind.

Let me explain…

I think the idea, and even more so the practice of hope is powerful, more powerful than we give it credit for because hope, in the way it’s used most often, has been hollowed out.

I hope everything’s going to be ok…

I hope you’re doing well…

I hope I make it to the store before it closes…

We use expressions of hope largely in situations that are beyond our control, as if that is the only place where hope exists.

Of course we think hope is flimsy, if we believe hope, or our role in it, is passive.

But the truth is, when hope is active, when you are actively engaged in work that’s aligned with what you hope for… it’s powerful. 

And I’ve found in all this ongoing research that it’s not just important to individuals. It’s critical to humanity…

It’s so simple, yet so incredibly transformative, hope.

If we want to believe we’re facing a wall, a block, an impasse, or even a window, then nothing is required of us.

There is, in fact, nothing that can be done. End of story.

But hope, ah hope.

Hope is a door that requires something of us. It invites us to believe something else is possible and then asks us to ACT.

If we have hope, then in the face of disappointment, death, destruction, conflict… It’s not the end of the story.

It’s only the beginning.

Active hope is everything we need to get started and walk through the door and into the future.

On Hope: Part 2 – Collective Hope… Coming 11/24/23 <3