Hope is a Practice
David Orr, an environmentalist and teacher, is credited with having said “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.”
I immediately took that on as a guiding principle of my life. Sometimes, like last week, I falter and lose my footing. I fell face forward onto the ground of my faith. And that is when I need hope. This kind of hope. The kind that pushes me up out of the sinking dirt of my despair and lifts me back into the world with work to do.
Raising up at times like this requires an enormous amount of personal power. That is where the marriage of faith and hope becomes sacred.
When I make art, when I have made art throughout my life, I see this as a potential act of resistance to moments such as now. I’m not speaking of political art, I’m talking about something much deeper and far more counter-cultural. When art is there to awaken us to what we have the capacity to become, when it is constructed to engage us consciously in this vibratory thing called Life, that is a resistance of epic scale.
It can be difficult at times to believe that life is sacred, that we are each contemporaneously caretakers of this life and co-creators. But this is what is true. The arts and artists can remind us of our holy depth and our resulting responsibility. We each hold a creative birthright which too many of us willingly barter away like Esau for a bowl of lentil stew.
Maybe that isn’t kind or generous enough on my part. Maybe we are so far away from a time when life required physical engagement with our world and, importantly, each other, that we are simply unaware of how narrow the portal to fulfilling our potential has become. A devolution resulting from our obsession with technical advancement.
But that portal is still open.
Not all of us live a life aware of its beauty. That is an enormous void which presents the dangerous situation we are currently in on this planet. It is inarguable that there are obstacles for so many - there is extreme suffering, there are dark environments from which people are born and through which they grow. There are also people who are simply not encouraged to look, to question, to wander and wonder. And then there are those focused on fighting against others who have not built the muscle to see; blinding themselves in the struggle.
All place us in situations of generational perpetuation away from the beauty that we are a part of and away from the beauty we could build. Together.
But there is always the possible.
What is the possible? It is that we bring the best of ourselves forward and the world - our world - transforms. However for it to last, for it to take true systemic root, it requires something different from us. It requires that we place our fear of one another behind our care of one another. And when we do that, we participate in the creation and appreciation of a rich and eternal beauty.
Artists may or may not realize it but they care for us. They sense what is there, or what should be and make it real for others. Their expression, whether shared through their own body or the tools they employ, can bring us powerfully toward presence. Toward appreciation and gratitude. They can “hook” us, in a sense, into this moment and in doing so, free us toward our truer, more complete selves.
At that moment, no matter how brief, we can experience a renewal of our soul, of our spirit, experiencing a moment of the possible. This is a nourishment all of us need in order to grow. And to heal.
I may not be a great singer, but I know the joy I feel when I sing. It lightens every cell in my body. I find I have a particular urge to sing after I hear a great performance. When the artistry is so high it touches deep inside me and my only response is to let my own self forward. At that moment I have a deep, expansive need to soar. I also feel a need to give, to participate in the collective we all share.
We don’t make art alone. No matter the discipline. I’m sitting here writing these words. I am physically by myself, but in no way am I alone. I write for you, for a sense of connection to our larger collective. I write to contribute, in any small drop of a way, into an awakening.
When we create something it is a demonstration of hope manifested into this world. Applied curiosity to what is possible opens those portals within us to seek out the “how” of this vision. And in doing that we grow. We expand. That expansion has positive impact on our relationships and our community.
It needn’t be Beyoncé or Frida Kahlo, or Steven Spielberg or Ansel Adams. It simply needs to be you.
Consider the edges of your portal’s opening as a muscle. Not dissimilar from a beating heart. It is life-giving and life-affirming. And requires daily love and care. Attention strengthens it. Breath. All of our senses, consciously worked with, invite in the possible.
I awoke this morning to the most beautiful gift of creativity. A cactus which for years has never flowered offered me this in the early light of the day.
It was such a joy. I thanked it. I laughed. I shared it with my husband who, in the midst of his running, allowed me to slow him down for one moment and celebrate with me.
This, in my consideration, is a moment of creative engagement.
You see, it takes all of us. It takes the artists to inspire and guide us, to offer a glimpse into the never-ending expanse of beauty. It takes ourselves in practice of our wholeness, using all the tools we were born with and created to use - our consciousness, our senses, our curiosity and passion, our ability to appreciate, to give and share. And it takes relationship with the natural unfolding of the universe in which we move and with which we can partner, such as my morning gift of a cactus flower, to align ourselves back to truth.
Which is: we are all capable of making hope possible. Once we remember who we are, once we remember what we are here to do and once we take an awakened look around and see the truth of what we are a part of.
At that point faith marries hope and the world becomes a sacred, creative village. Nothing more. Nothing less.
It is a practice of our common lineage.
A practice toward being fully human in this miraculous, wondrous world.
I end every post with an invitation to join the We Care Promise Team. A movement that is growing globally to center care and love in our communities through intentionally caring relationships. If you are an artist and interested in this please click here to join the Creative Corps We Care Promise Team.
If you are NOT a creative but an AMAZING human being please click here. Ultimately we arrive in the same place. A planet transformed through the loving, caring acts of intentionally connected persons who live on her.