Hope is the most wonderful quality – it motivates us, it inspires positive change, growth, kindness. It creates the best of human intentions and ideologies. Without hope life would be very grey or Dreich (Scottish word for grey, wet, beyond gloomy weather). We give each other the” kindness of hope “ (unashamedly quoting a a song lyric of mine!) in so many myriad ways and this quality is one we could all do with encouraging and fostering as much as possible. Myself included.
What is hope then and why is it so powerful? For me, hope is a sense of my uplifted heart believing that good, positive, wonderful growing things are possible in all spheres of life. Believing that we as humans can go the extra mile, surpass the lowest common denominator and shine in a way that makes the world a better place. Sometimes it is illusory and sometimes it is just a seed but it’s presence means that all kinds of hardships can be endured or worked through. If you take people’s hope away then they shrivel. Apparently it is hopelessness in refugee camps that is one of the worst problems. We all need to believe that we can create and forge a good and happy human life. I would say that hope is a human right and we could remember this more in our daily lives and help pass on the “hope.”
Today, on a macro scale we need to find ways to practice hope and then inspired action. Climate change, conflicts, a growing refugee crisis and in Britain the “delightful” Brexit conundrum are all things that wage a war on hope. But, we can look- always, for the silver lining – and we can use our intelligence and creativity to work together to create hope and ways forward. It does require though , several things for hope to become more than just a vague energy form. We need to cultivate having a sense of the collective importance of each and every being- a sense of equality if you like. This allows us to care more and then to put creative energy into solutions. We need to see the bigger picture- we find it hard to move beyond a keyhole perspective. In having even something of a bigger picture it allows our thinking, our connectivity and our ideas to have more synthesis about them- to be more whole, wiser, if you will. Together we can create hope and ways forward, that alone we can not. There is great, great power in togetherness- for good or for ill.
For me this is mirrored on a micro and individual scale in my own attempts to develop both as a music teacher and songwriter/performer. I need to believe – I need to hope- that ways can be found and having exhausted all angles from my individual place of trying I hope and trust that ways will be found for others to give me the offering of hope and help to do the work I feel I am meant to do.
When I was a very small girl one of my parents asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up: my wish was to be a “ like a sunbeam” that brought light to the world! (A bit “Abi” quirky, but perfectly sensible on one level). Hope is light, love is light, kindness is light and active hope would include all three. It strikes me that perhaps part of our human journey is to embody those qualities, grow them and give them to each other. Hope and the physical effects of embodying this quality make the world a place full of more sunlight. We can all be that sunbeam I imagined as a small child, we just need to cultivate it and find ways to express it to and for each other through our relationships, our work and our play. I forget this as much as anyone so it is a good aspiration to have. My family tease me and lovingly call me” a musical sunbeam”- because this is what I try to do through my teaching and singing/songwriting.
Here is to hope in your heart for your dreams, and kindness and for giving others hope when you can…..and to the hope that we can collectively create a little more “Sunshine” on this beautiful planet of ours for each other and for the world itself.
Hope is a great “ kindness” and it can allow us to “soar free “- like in my song “Phoenix” (Youtube, Abi Rooley-Towle).
Abi's World of Music 