What is hope? Following a week of difficult images and news I have been reflecting on hope. I think I feel saturated in cheerful “greeting card” optimism and polarised opinions which has left me feeling muted, exhausted and disappointed. I have read inspirational ‘stuff’ over the years about hope and have found that it is depicted as though hope is our starting point and in truth, I’ve struggled with that. Blind hope I think can be delusional, it brings false optimism and piety. What this week and the previous months in C-19 has taught me is that hope needs to be gritty because invariably it comes from a place of pain and suffering first.
I think our starting point is pain, from there is growth and hope. But it’s not blind hope for hope’s sake, sitting around waiting for something to happen. It’s gritty defiant hope, a hope that contains willpower and way power, the kind of hope that keeps you energised, moving forward, diminishing your fear through courage, persistently kicking out; resolute that if you kick hard enough at the darkness - light will shine through.
To all of you out there dealing with your own struggles, feeling exhausted (how often have I heard that recently) perhaps consider that hope is not the starting point – the pain and discomfort you have felt or are feeling .. is. Maybe start to shift your internal conversation, look for your courage and look for ways (no matter how tiny) to move from pain into gritty defiant hope. ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’ is how the saying goes, hope of course needs will power and way power, so this week …. get gritty!!
Strong footwear recommended