On Hope

Doing something with hope and optimism has a different quality than doing the same thing with despair. I don’t care how many people look down on the concept of hope – I’ve heard it many times. They said that it’s empty and a way of keeping people complacent while avoiding change. Maybe there are some definitions that can lead to it being viewed that way, but if you look at it another way hope is extremely powerful. It is subtle, that is true, but it is not weak and not meaningless. If you don’t believe me try doing anything—big or small without hope. Try doing any menial little task while feeling completely and utterly hopeless. It’s not easy. Every movement is weighed down by despair and the heaviness of that load is exhausting. On the other hand even seemingly, impossible tasks become doable (if not easy) when enough hope is added.

Hope is subtle but like the invisible parts of molecules, it permeates are reality and inspires action. Action occurs most easily and cleanly when there is a measure of hope in it. The energy changes and I know that energy is hard to grasp if you want to focus only on physical aspects of reality, but energy is the blueprint that leads to changes in reality. If you want to know where your life is heading look at the energy you are most frequently producing, watch the feeling that carries you and look at how you fill each thought or action with a certain feeling. Follow that feeling long enough and it will start to show up in a physical form.

The problem that most people run into is patience and persistence. It’s hard to see a pattern that takes such a long time to unfold and it is hard to persistently hold an energy long enough to see a direct outcome. Often the dynamics are more like the patterns you see when looking through a kaleidoscope. They are complex and vary and a turn or twist can completely change them. A brain looking for a straight line in a turning kaleidoscope is going to have a very difficult time picking up a pattern.

Hope has a kind of pattern and that pattern folds into what you do and don’t do and over time the outcome shifts. More is accomplished with hope than without it. That is why it is necessary for change.

Why am I writing about this right now? Mostly because I am feeling myself oscillating between feelings of extreme hope and extreme despair and this is my way of understanding the shifts. It is also my way of creating hope for myself. I don’t know if this is just something I am feeling personally or if it is around me or if it is collective, but I know that right now I need to remember the importance of the unseen realm. The subtle but powerful energies that permeate the world and shape the outcome. We have plenty of reasons for despair but we also have a tremendous amount of potential to hope for and to use the momentum of that hope to strive for. This is what change looks like. It isn’t necessarily fast or clean or easy, but it’s happening now and we get to choose how we act and react to the shifting dynamics around us.

P.S. I ran out of hope in this project last year and stopped working on it, but currently the pain of feeling hopeless is causing me to come back to writing regardless of whether there is an apparent outcome or not. It’s something that feels important enough for me to do it and feels good enough to keep trying regardless of what it looks like externally. This goes with the concept of opposites—if you run fast enough and far enough down one quality you will end up in the opposite quality. So if you are feeling hopeless don’t beat yourself up over it or think it means that the world is over, sit with the despair for a while an let it push you into something that feels more inspiring. You might be surprised by what happens. You might also get to see some of the magic that comes with learning to flip through oppositional forces and find the positive aspects of negative feelings. There’s a lot to unpack here and I can go on a million tangential loops, but this is enough for now. I’m sure I’ll write again. The energy is pushing me to, it’s hurting too much not to. I am thinking about destroying this website though and cleaning up and reviving my old one. I like the energy of that one better, the heart felt more sincere. If I do go through with that change I’ll let you know ahead of time. Sorry for all the switching—I have too much mutable energy in my chart to keep with one forum.