Hope Rising

Life is such an interesting journey. As I continue to navigate challenges, learn, and grow, I continue to discover how ill-equipped I often feel. I don't believe I actually am incapable of moving forward, but feelings can be overwhelming at times. Life often seems to slap you in the face just as you start to feel like yourself again.

As I begin a final push towards a personal and professional goal, I hold an eighteen-week deadline to drop dead center. I continue to hope for something better, something brighter, something more honest, more vulnerable and more sincere. I continue to be surprised by a multitude of engines in place to hold people to mediocrity in our society rather than the idealist realm I may reside in. I realize that the reality is probably somewhere in the middle, and yet the gulf seems too magnanimous to cross at times. I also wonder if once the bridge is crossed, will the struggle have been worth it.

I also find that having a more global perspective is sometimes to my detriment. Being able to see the bigger picture and having a knack for advanced planning can create challenges that I never could have imagined. Lines like 'stay in your lane' or 'know your place' permeate my thoughts and fears and yet...I still choose hope. I hope for something better and more complete for our humanity. I place that hope in the young people that see the world in possibility and not in the way things have always been. Despite everything, I continue to believe that people are truly good at heart, as Anne Frank would say. I also hope in the end I won't find myself naive in my thought process.

And so dear reader, my hope for you is that you have the strength to persevere in times of challenge. My hope for us all is that we can find a way towards each other rather than farther away. My personal hope is that I am wrong in my fears and correct in my suspicions...that people really are god at heart. My hope for our world is that we all continue to find a way to care for, serve, and provide for each other in ways that work for us all and not just for some. That we will listen more than we talk and we will consider that we are not always right. The concept that have much to learn by engagement and honest conversation rather than dictatorial leadership in large and small ways.