We are all in a constant state of transformation. For nine months, we transformed in our mothers’ wombs, and from our birth until now, we’ve continued to change. Change is the one constant in life. I’m not speaking only about physical change, but psychological, emotional, and spiritual change. We are constantly changing from one state to another, even on a moment-to-moment basis. Therefore, it is up to us to manage this change in the most productive and positive way possible.
To continue to evolve we need hope.
Some of the most hope-filled people have been those to whom favorable outcomes were a long shot. Think of Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison before going on to become the first president of South Africa. Or Vaclav Havel, the Czech statesman, playwright, and former dissident, who spent years in prison and served as the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first present of the Czech Republic.
Hope is mixed in with all our suffering.
In Greek mythology, the god Zeus created Pandora and sent her into the world. She brought a jar, which she had been warned never to open. But curiosity got the better of her. When she cracked open the jar, all the world’s evils, which had been stored inside, came rushing out. And although she tried to close it again, it was too late. The only thing left inside was hope.
This story points to the source of hope, which is mixed in with all our suffering at the bottom of the jar where we might least expect to find it.
The dictionary tells us that hope is:
- to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true
- to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment
- to expect with confidence; hope against hope, to hope without any basis for expecting fulfillment
The verb hope means “to want something to happen,” while the noun hope refers to “a feeling of expectation and desire” and trust in its oldest sense. When we expect that something we’ve hoped for will come to pass, it can lighten our hearts and steps.
In Spanish, the same word, espero, says both “I hope” and “I wait.” So, hope has an element of patience.
- Close your eyes. Clear a space. Is there a word, an image, or a phrase that comes to mind when you think of the word hope? What are some words that describe what hope means to you? Take a moment. Then jot down your answers.
- Think of a time when your hope waned but then showed up again. Recall an occasion when you received some sign or indication that enabled you to continue on. What happened? How did it feel to begin again? Begin writing with the prompt:
“Just when I thought hope had left me…”
Try to remember how you were able to access hope in the past, and the next time you feel that there is nothing left in the jar you carry, remember that hope is lying at the bottom of it.
“That’s what hope is, no shining thing but a kind of sustenance, plain as bread, the ordinary thing that feeds us.”
—Mark Doty
“Carve a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.”
—Martin Luther King Jr.
