Hope is holding a creative tension between what is and what could and should be, each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two.

~PJP

In dark times, personal or political—and they are both for many of us these days—we need hope to see us thru.

But hope is not merely an attitude, it’s also an action, as the poet Kim Stafford suggests.

Here are some of Kim’s lines, each followed by my brief take on it:

• “Be not afraid.” [We can and do HAVE fear, but we don’t need to BE fear.]

• “When things go wrong, do right.” [Every right counts, no matter how small.]

• “…the well-lit problem begins to heal.” [Seek truth in yourself and your world and it will set you free.]

• “Learn tropism toward the difficult.” [As I learned on Outward Bound, “If you can’t get out of it, get into it!”]

• “When you hit rock bottom, dig farther down.” [At times we can’t bounce back until we’ve bottomed out.]

• “Plunder your reticence.” [For me, that often means, “Get over yourself and just do it!”]

mark time and feel the enormous power of this care and reckoning….

inquiry for today~ how will you bear witness?

this loving way

In our relationships,

in our community,

on this earth,

we may not live to see

the results of our efforts.

Still, we can turn toward the world

and plant seeds

for a more compassionate future.

~Jack Kornfield