Hope in the Dark

Active Hope is one of my themes for Lent, which is coming up next week, and I want to have a clear idea of what that involves. It requires that I:

• maintain a clear view of reality; 
• identify what I hope for - the direction I’d like things to move in and the values I'd like to express; 
• and take steps to move in that direction.

First nasturtium, February 25, 2025

Agenda today:

1. Read "Hope in the Dark"

2. Review Essential Intentions

1. Read "Hope in the Dark":

I'm reading a new book, "Hope in the Dark; Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities" by Rebecca Solnit (2016). The forward is Grounds for Hope: "Hope is a gift you don't have to surrender, a power you don't have to throw away. And though hope can be an act of defiance, defiance isn't enough reason to hope."

She wrote this book in 2003-4, and this is the third edition. But we continue to see both vital, transformative movements, and nightmarish realities of economic inequality, attacks on civil liberties, cyber-surveillance, and the arrival of climate change. 

"Hope doesn't mean denying these realities. It means facing them and addressing them by remembering what else the twenty-first century has brought ...This has been a truly remarkable decade for movement building, social change, and deep, profound shifts in ideas, perspective, and frameworks..."

She also covers the Uses of Uncertainty, one of my favorite/ most difficult concepts. She says that hope is not the belief that everything will be fine; it's about broad perspectives and possibilities that invite action. It's "an account of complexities and uncertainties, with openings".

"Hope locates itself in the premises that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. ... It's the belief that what we do matters even though how or when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand."

2. Review Essential Intentions:

Baba's first two eggs, February 25, 2025

This week I'm reviewing and recommitting to my core values, and writing new intentions. I ask-

How do I define each of my values?

Why do I value them? Why is it so important to me?

What right action or good deeds do I intend each day?

How do I intend to live, to support and demonstrate my values?

When I turn my values into intentions, they become a pledge for action in the moment - they remind me of my deepest, most essential, most passionate reasons for leading a valuable life. It's vital for me to define my values and principles in a way that touches me at my core, and hone each one down to a phrase that will be useful, day in and day out.

I'm working at this a little each day:

I intend to speak up for equality, treat every person and creature with respect and love, and work to correct my short falls and those in my community, because the common humanity of all people, and the spirit-connection of all Creation, transcends our differences.