Beyond the noise,
Beyond the news,
The disasters,
The hate,
The confusion,
Fear and tragedy,
Beyond the thoughts,
There is a whisper so small and faint but a whisper all the same.
Hope.
Can you hear it?
Hope lives in a place that is sometimes difficult to find,
Difficult to remember.
Yet it is there,
Surrounded by warmth,
By softness,
By the protection of your true essence,
Your truth.
It is there waiting for you patiently and quietly.
In difficult times it is more important to connect to and to hold on to hope than ever before.
Hold on to that hope with all your might,
No matter what others tell you,
No matter how others might judge you.
Hope of better times,
Hope that we can learn and make a difference no matter how small.
Hope.
Do you remember as a child your hope for each day?
All the fun that could be had from the minute your eyes opened until the sun stopped shining that day.
Your hopes for your life,
Your hope for the world and all that it had to offer,
All that you had to offer.
Your big dreams,
Your small dreams,
Your dreams.
As an adult what are your hopes for yourself?
Have they grown stronger over time or have they dimmed a little?
What are your hopes for this world and the world that we're leaving to the next generation?
For peace,
For unity,
For kindness,
For compassion,
For understanding.
We see on the news the worst side of humanity and it can leave us with a sense of despair but there is always hope.
I wonder how life could be different,
How humanity could be different,
How we could all be filled with more hope.
Let's dare to dream together.
What if we were encouraged to look at what we all have in common with each other instead of to focus on the differences.
Even if the only commonality you find is that we are both here together experiencing this journey called life but you'll discover so many more things that you have in common.
What if when we do notice the differences we're invited to share with each other in the spirit of learning and curiosity and respect instead of judgment and division.
What if we allow those differences to be the spice,
The color in the world.
How boring the world would be without them.
What if beyond the differences we could see the heart,
The intention in another person.
Even if sometimes we have to look really hard,
Even if sometimes it's really difficult to look for it.
What if we were taught from a young age to question our beliefs,
Our teachings,
Our thoughts,
Our culture,
The echo chambers that surround us.
What if we were taught that the teachings come from other human beings who also make mistakes and are also on a journey of growth.
What if we did this in the spirit of growth and understanding and what if through this growth and understanding our worldview is consciously formed and open to always evolving and changing instead of remaining static and still.
What if we were taught how to hold space for our own suffering as well as how to hold space for that of a fellow human being.
Taught to hold two truths at the same time not just one,
Not just our own.
What if instead of choosing sides we could turn to each other in our grief and say I'm so sorry for your pain I see it I want to help what can I do and what if someone could do the same for you.
What if instead of turning against each other we turn towards each other with compassion and care with kindness and love.
What if we could look beyond those emotions of anger and find those softer emotions that lie beneath.
What if instead of turning against each other we could come together in times of suffering and need.
Whilst we're dreaming what if our newsfeed was filled with all the good in the world,
Stories of people helping each other,
Communities coming together for each other,
People helping the vulnerable,
People stamping out hate and division.
How would that help your sense of hope for the world.
What if we could consciously be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
Even if we know that the only person we can really change is ourselves.
I wonder what the ripple effect of us doing our inner work might be.
Small,
Subtle,
Barely there.
But I wonder if that might help stoke the same embers of hope and change in another.
Now more than ever we need to cling to hope in the knowledge that even one person can make a difference no matter how small.
Have you heard the story by Lauren Isley about the starfish?
It goes something like this and I'll leave you with this.
A man was walking along the beach and he noticed a boy picking up starfish and gently throwing them back into the ocean and he asked the boy what he was doing and the boy said he was throwing the starfish back into the ocean.
The tide was going out and if he didn't throw them back in the starfish would surely die.
The man laughed to himself and said you do realize how long this beach is and how many starfish there are you can't possibly make a difference.
And the boy bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the ocean.
He smiled at the man and he said that I've made a difference to that one.
