As you have seen here often and as we know from personal experience, hope can be a powerful force, especially in difficult times. Today, we and the rest of the world are facing the coronavirus crisis, a pandemic that has changed life for all of us. In times like these, hope can indeed be a powerful source of reassurance. Many who are confined to home, others who are working to help and prevent the virus, and all of us in between need the reassurance and the hope that “we shall overcome.”
Let’s let the “words of wisdom” below spark some hope today for us and for our world.
- “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson, poet
- “Hope is a renewable option: If you run out of it at the end of the day, you get to start over in the morning.” – Barbara Kingsolver, novelist
- “To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled, and to trust that, that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful ‘magic skills’ that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by almost every ancient wisdom tradition.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, author
- “Hope begins in the dark. The stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” – Anne Lamott, novelist
- “If you are feeling helpless, help someone else. If you are feeling alone, don’t ignore another person’s loneliness. If you are afraid, be brave for someone else. Things feel more doable if they are not about you.” – Shonda Rhimes, screenwriter
In keeping with this literary theme, have you ever read the book Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel? The focus of the book is a troupe of performers called the Traveling Symphony, who go from town to town in a “post-apocalyptic,” hollowed-out world and furnish the residents with delight and enrichment through art. One side of the lead caravan carries a motto from an episode of the original Star Trek series: “Because survival is insufficient.” Just “getting by” may be all we can ask for some days, but maybe we are also being called right now to create a world of renewed hope, a world where we are unreservedly kind to each other, no matter what!
“Lord, help us take things one day at a time. Remind us of what’s important in our lives and why. Fill us with your hope. Amen.”
