Hope Will Bring Us Through

Well friends, we have entered uncharted territory. How many times recently have we uttered the words “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life!”? We have gone from watching from a distance to now directly being affected. Whether it’s our health, our jobs, our homes, our families or our abilities to be active in the ways we are accustomed to, we have all been touched by this pandemic. I don’t know about you but I’ve definitely ridden the roller coaster of emotions about these times. Several weeks ago I went on a deep tailspin of the “what ifs”….. what if they aren’t telling us the whole story, what if it gets worse, what if we can’t work, what if we get sick, what if we can’t pay our bills, what if we can’t go on our trips, what if the city shuts down, what if we don’t have enough food and supplies…..then I talked myself out of those thoughts and concluded I was being irrational. Turns out, those thoughts weren’t so irrational. Though the thoughts were rooted in fear and angst the reality of our current circumstances still prove to be incredibly stressful and scary. Despite the fear of the present and the unknown of what’s yet to come, I am still holding on to hope.

Hope is a powerful thing, it has brought me through hardships and trials before and I trust that it will do it again. Hope is what causes me to take my worries to God through prayer and meditation. Hope empowers me to see beyond what appear to be hinderances and obstruction. Hope guides me into the truth that there is always space for God and the goodness of humanity to shift. As I’ve been going on my daily walks I’ve been listening to the birds singing, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face, noticing the flowers beginning to bloom and most importantly observing the kindness coming forth in our communities. I see people gifting each other huge smiles and encouraging words as they pass each other, I see signs offering help in front yards next to boxes of free hygienic supplies and extra food from their pantries, I see Christmas lights being put back out to cheer their neighbors up and I see our older community members light up to see a happy dog pass them by. This is a major shift from where we were even a couple of weeks ago. We are beginning to reconnect to each other in a way that we have desperately needed to for far too long. The hope that is rising during all of this is what truly is going to sustain us. I realize that hope doesn’t come easy for all of us. For some of my brothers and sisters out there, there may be mental and physical conditions that are playing a much bigger role than choosing to claim hope. Please know that I haven’t forgotten you and am consistently praying for you. Whether you feel it or not, you are loved, you are worthy and you are strong enough to endure this. These are the times in life that we are reminded that we ALL matter and we are Better together.

Friends, know that I am not attempting to sugarcoat the severity of what’s going on in our world by including a cute term like Hope with it. There may be days ahead of us that may be filled with upsetting news, terrifying statistics and uncertainty on all realms yet I will still ask of all of us to go inward and deeper into our spirituality and faith seeking the wisdom and peace for each other and in our own spirits.

May we continue to hold onto Hope and come out on the other side of this a better world !!!

Psalm 121 I lift up my eyes to the mountains-where does my help come from? My help comes from God