In Love With Hope

A few days ago, I watched a wonderful movie that explored many of our human issues related to faith, doubt, fear, brokenness, failure, survival, and death. One of the characters spoke about being,” in love with hope.” This idea really struck a chord with me as I reflect upon the many challenges we face in this present moment as we work to stay grounded in hope.

The idea of falling in love with hope reminds to think about what it is like to fall in love with something or someone. Readers will likely remember how the energy of falling love becomes all consuming. Our world is made brighter by the energy that is generated and there is a greater capacity to see life through a new lens. The energy of new love can be healing as well as disturbing because it demands change. One cannot simply stay the same while standing in the energetic force of a new experience of love. It is transformative.

Most folks who have the capacity to reflect upon this present moment would agree that we need such new energy. We need to find a new place to stand as we begin this new year with darkness running around as if it owns the planet and daring us to try to stay grounded in hope. The stories of mass shootings, drug abuse, political absurdity and clowning, war, violent extremes in the weather, suicides and homicides in young and old people, mental health issues, and the many other ills that make us wish for better times keep standing in front of us making it clear that they have not vacated the premises and that we will have to deal with them on a daily basis.

What would it mean to live life as a person who is in love with hope? I asked myself this question as I reflected upon the characters comment in the movie. One of the things that was affirmed very quickly for me was that I would need to make sure to watch very little news as a starter. I would need to find the quickest way to get the sketches of the news that will keep me informed but make sure to ration my time with the news cycle. It is critical to avoid most of the commentary because too many of those folks have made their peace with the negative energy of hopelessness and speak out of that place as if they are authorities. Many of them have no idea what they are speaking about and are simply trying to sound authoritative because they have been tapped to provide a sound bite.

Then, I thought about how crucial it is to remember that the day progresses much better when there is thought given to the wellbeing of others as well as oneself and to make sure in any given day to pay attention to all who appear on our paths and to be careful to make sure that we help anyone that we can help. This behavior helps to reinforce the intention to be in love with hope. It is grounding in the same way that love for a person is grounded when it goes beyond the initial new energy generated in the beginning to the more stable effort of being on a journey where that love is expressed and reinforced by concrete behavior.

While falling in love is exciting and enlivening initially, it is important to move along to the deeper level of being in love. This space provides a more stable energy and a deep sense of wellbeing that cannot be fabricated. The energy of love arises as gift from the deep corners of the soul and is not ever to be taken lightly. Our planet needs us to seek to be open to the possibility of being captured by this energy in regard to hope and to stay open to having the courage to live into it so that it can generate new life. We cannot continue to sustain this way of life which is filled with a greater commitment to death and decay than to life and generativity. Thus, our love for hope must be allowed to deepen which happens as we practice it each day. It has to be nurtured and practiced.

Can we find a way to allow love for hope to invade our cold-hearted ways of being together on this planet that will begin to allow the light of healing and the warmth of hope to create new ways of being for us? Can we take a chance with hope?