Finding Hope

I have always been an optimist.

My spirit generally points me toward the hopeful.

Toward the glass half full. 

I believe in the inherent good of people and the world around me. To me, it just makes sense to invest energy in the possibilities. To focus on where we can grow rather than where we are stagnating.

But I, too, have lived through dark moments.

Everyone has.

When my mother got cancer. When friends have lost their spouse. When I have been in relationships that met a dead end. When my father had a serious accident. When someone I loved had to go into detox. When a job was unfulfilling, but I couldn’t see a path to get out.

A dear friend of mine is going through some serious challenges right now. And that friend asked from deep within their pit of despair, “How can you even have hope in this moment”? 

And all I could say in response was, “What alternative is there, really? I mean, why not try to find a shred of hope in this moment?”

The alternative was implausible to me.

I couldn’t imagine my friend not coming out the other side.

Until it happens for sure, I don’t want to spend my time imagining that.

I used to sometimes imagine the worst. But as I grew older, I realized that very practice was stealing away my joy.

Pessimism is the greatest thief.

David Whyte, poet and leadership expert, once said, “There is not just a horizon outside of you. There is a horizon inside of you as well.”

As the sun rises or sets, the world around us can look eerie. There are more shadows, and dull light can play tricks on our eyes. This is also the time when deer, possum, bear, and other nocturnal animals show up by the side of the road. And birds often start or stop their calling. 

Some flowers even open or close their faces to the day or night. 

In these moments of darkness, we often turn toward more familiar things. There is comfort in the familiar. 

But Whyte says that the horizon that is inside of us is what keeps the future alive and changing and growing. As human beings, we are in a constant state of evolution.

We are always growing and changing.

And we are always changing our relationship to something. 

Perhaps it’s trying to sit with our relationship of something impossible happening in our lives. Or maybe it’s trying to be with anxiety or fear.

What is rising in the horizon of you?

Is there possibility there that terrifies you?

Or brokenness perhaps?

If so, what does the pursuit of wholeness look like that includes a love of that brokenness? 

Sometimes, we can’t see all that is there. We are not able to see everything in the dull light that might be inside.  And just like we turn away from what we don't know in the outside world, Whyte says we often turn away from what we don’t know about our inside world. 

American modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe’s work crossed new boundaries. She almost always lived outside of the art movements she worked alongside. She was constantly turning toward the unfamiliar.

O’Keeffe said once, “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from a single thing that I wanted to do.” 

What are you most terrified of right now?

And what might you do if you didn’t let that get in your way?

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