Hope is a virtue
A posture of soul turned spiritual practice
Made manifest only through a perennial reimagining
That sees life as it is
Not as we may wish it to be
Most often propelled by discomfort
Hope demands we step out of our ruts
Start searching for truer answers
Discovered only when and where
Our fear is mixed with sacred anticipation
And our threatened estate humbles our presumption
Hope is a crossing over
A moving forward
Initially discovered in the soul as a sign and not a solution
For the eyes of the soul need signposts to help it see
And discern new direction
Hope is a felt knowing born of courage
Formed in part paradoxically by what frightens us most
Continually beckoning us to the other side
Even when every ounce of our being rebels
To the story heaven is whispering to us daily
Our fearlessness is obedience
When we are bereft of hope
Lost in the woods of self-righteousness and cynicism
Our prophecies become deeply embedded
In the undergrowth of the times
Impotent and unable to usher in the next age
For hope is a profound risk
Not a guarantee for tomorrow
But a detonator of energy for action today
An explosion of broken openness
Revealing the disconnect
Between the narratives we follow
And the world we claim we so deeply desire
And as we lay aside the accusations of cynics and pundits
That hope is indistinct from optimism or idealism
We declare to all
That hope has nothing to do with “wishing”
But references reality at every turn and reveres truth
Living in a century of staggering open ended questions
Hope now becomes a calling
A clarion call
To those who are willing to hold it up to the Light
For the sake of the world