Alive with Hope

My friends in Hope, it’s been a little while since I’ve written.  I continue to be blessed with experiences that connect me with sources of Love and Hope.  I had one such experience in the last few days.    I read an email about the Earth Treasure Vase project, which was started by Cynthia Jurs.  She meditated with a 106-year-old Buddhist Lama in a cave in Nepal some years ago.  When she had a chance to ask the Lama what humans can do to bring healing and protection to the Earth, the Lama told her, “Even just one person can bring benefit to a whole area around where they live.”…

Dear friends, I hope you are finding ways to keep yourself peaceful as you navigate the crazy times in which we are living.  This week I want to share one of my favorite types of meditation, a Metta or Loving Kindness Meditation.  I call it “A Hopeful Act of Being and Doing” because it is both a way of being in the world and an action that I believe impacts those around us.  I made this recording recently, while practicing for leading a meditation with a dear friend.  For the language, I borrowed heavily from a few of my favorite meditation teachers on the Insight Timer app, Moira Hutchinson and…

It’s about time for an update on the Little Free Pantry Project.  In the just over 2 months we’ve been doing it, we’ve gone from a table in the front yard to a permanent home for the pantry.  We’ve also gone from having only items that came out of our personal pantry to receiving donations from nearby neighbors.  We’ve had people leave $1.00 or 50 cents and even had a check show up in the mail! It’s been a journey for me.  I never expected to see money show up in the pantry or the mail.    Nor did I expect that our act of kindness would spark other people’s generosity. …

I’m feeling more Hopeful than I have for the last few weeks, feeling it come naturally as opposed to it being a difficult thing to muster and choose.  As we say in my friend’s Laughter Yoga circle, “Very good.  Very good.  YAY!”  In truth, our emotional states ebb and flow as mine have done over the last few weeks.  I’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with that, how to allow the other emotions – the ones I don’t particularly want to feel, like sadness, disappointment, anger, and depression.  How to listen to them, harness them, and allow them to motivate me – all while still holding onto…

It’s been a couple of difficult weeks for me.  You may have noticed that I didn’t publish a blog last week.  I’ve been trying to make meaning out of the strange events we are experiencing in the US and trying to find Hope in them.  Needless to say it’s been a struggle… I keep expecting that the US has hit rock bottom, so we can start rising from the ashes – of coronavirus, systemic racism, and a political environment of absurdity.  And I keep being surprised that there are new lows.  People making death threats against public health officials because they fear contact tracing.  People physically attacking others for wearing…

One of the most impactful things I’ve read or seen in the past two weeks was a non-descript looking video on Facebook.  In this video, a White man speaks eloquently about many things related to Racism and the history of protest and rebellion in this country.  And, he spoke about Love.  The video was by a man named Johnny Graf, who I don’t know and have never met.  I am sharing his words here because I feel they are the words of encouragement that our country, and our world need right now.  Johnny, my hat’s off to you.  No one has said it better. “Man, 2020 what a year of…

This post departs from my norm of NOT writing about the BAD STUFF.  It is purposeful.  Even in the overwhelmingly heartbreaking situation of Racism in the United States of America, I am choosing to find HOPE.  To be true to my ideal that HOPE isn’t a feeble-minded escape from despair, I must acknowledge the truth.  The truth is that I have immense privilege as a White American.  What follows is an illustrative list of examples of White Privilege.  It is borrowed from a friend’s Facebook post.  PLEASE READ THIS PAINFUL LIST.  IT IS IMPORTANT.  As White Americans, we MUST acknowledge our privilege.  “I have privilege as a White Person because…

It’s a tough week in the United States of America.  And it’s only Tuesday.  If you love your country, you’re hurting.  If you love your neighbors, regardless of the color of their skin, you’re hurting.  It’s a tough week to find HOPE.  I normally publish this blog on Thursdays, but after hearing from several friends and colleagues that they ESPECIALLY NEED HOPE RIGHT NOW, I felt compelled to write sooner.  The awful news continues and it’s breaking my heart.  And yet, there is AMAZING, HOPEFUL NEWS too.  I’ve seen images of POLICE OFFICERS KNEELING DOWN IN SOLIDARITY WITH PROTESTORS.  Those images bring tears to my eyes.  I’ve read stories about…

Our world right now makes me want to cry.  Sometimes it’s happy tears, feeling overwhelmed by the generosity and love exhibited by people in the ways they are helping strangers.  Adults sharing their stimulus checks with those in need.  Children sewing masks in their spare time to raise money for charity.  People doing amazing things like John Krasinski (of The Office and Jack Ryan fame) hosting a super cool prom and graduation ceremony as part of his “Some Good News (SGN)” YouTube show.  And there’s so much more.  If you need to be uplifted, take a look at https://www.karunavirus.org/ And then, there are the sad tears.  I don’t need to…

Today’s post is a little different than the others.  It is an audio recording of what I’m calling “I Choose Hope:  My Hope Manifesto”.  It makes the case that Hope is a choice, as is despair or disengagement.  I offer this as both inspiration and challenge.  Can you, do you Choose Hope Every Day?   Where does choosing hope take you and what does it offer you?  With Love and Hope, Colleen