The other day I had a crazy thought with full visuals. Rome was burning and I saw how people were responding. Some were kneeling in prayer and others raising their hands to heaven beseeching God for help. Some were dancing and eating and engaging in wild orgiastic sex – one last “hit” of pleasure before the world as they knew it ended. Some were cowering in dark corners shaking and trembling or completely paralyzed with fear. Some were drinking or drugging themselves into a stupor in order to avoid what was happening. Some were on the front lines trying to put out the fire. And some were providing sustenance and support to all of these other beings who were responding to exactly the same situation. The last two groups were hoping for something better and actively engaging in making that reality come to pass.
I have been wrestling with the word HOPE for a couple of weeks now - ever since my friend Carrie suggested I write a newsletter about it. I realized I had no idea what hope feels like. I woke up one morning thinking ‘hope is like wanting something really badly but there is a Mount Everest between you and what you want’. Then I remembered that Barack Obama wrote a book called The Audacity of Hope and talked a lot about hope in his campaign speeches, as well as during his presidency. So, I went searching for some of his eloquence. I discovered, that like me, he saw the mountain… but he talked about that little spark within that ‘insists’ that things can be better even when the obstacle seems insurmountable.
“Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it.”
Then I remembered one of Michael’s favourite childrens’ books – The Little Engine that Could. He read that story aloud to every small child who came into our world. “I think I can. I think I can. I know I can.” was the mantra of the Little Engine who just wanted to be the best little engine that he could and to shine and to be of service and to deliver the toys and food to the children on the other side of the mountain.
So maybe hope is ‘energy following intention’? Once our mind has pictured, imagined, thought it, it can happen because our energy begins to move in that direction. And it may take effort, like the little engine, but the outcome is always possible.
Do we need hope right now??? Absolutely. I do not think there has ever been a time in human history where the need for hope is more apparent than now. The whole world, our whole planet, our home is facing this pandemic. Rich and Poor, Black and White, Old and Young… all can be impacted by this common experience. I know of no country that has not been affected in some way by the coronavirus. Everything is different. Our lives are virtual. And it can become overwhelming after a year into it and challenging to see the forest for the trees. And we must have hope. We must begin to see ourselves at the other side of this experience. We must begin to imagine how it will be to hug again, to celebrate life together again and not to be in fear.
So, I called this BLOG - This, or Something Better, and that’s because whenever I find myself in a ‘stuck’ place I remember that the caterpillar becomes the butterfly. The caterpillar is crawling along the earth with his only purpose being to eat until one day he hangs upside down and spins a cocoon. It must be scary not eating anymore and being in darkness. Literally the caterpillar’s life is turned upside down. And then some few days later there is a quiver in the darkness and out emerges a magnificent being with wings that need to dry in the sun before it can fly. Aaaaah!!!! – a butterfly. And Butterfly medicine is a “symbol of hope, endurance, and courage to embrace the transformation to make life better.”
I wish you a happy hope-filled month of May😘🌈🌻
With love and blessings
Sabina
