Sustainable Life

I've had weird dreams lately, like trying to pick a floating puppy out of the clouds that I can't quite reach or being in a balloon and watching a violent earthquake going on below. Shake ups are certainly the new norm in our lives. Worries about keeping the lights on and food on the table, being productive and valued, have for the first time allowed fear to creep into seeing a shockingly bleaker future than the past.

And yet I sustain hope. It's my personality, some might say, and I'm out of touch, but you know it's not that at all. It's a deliberate belief system that takes work and practice and due diligence. I choose to hope. One way is by spending time and helping out those who ask. Oh I get something in return. My payoff has been an unexpected joy in sharing the quiet moments in people's lives as they transition. I don't have to decide anything or stake a claim, just be an extra pair of hands that can listen and work.

My life was bleak and it took a long time to find my way out of the tunnel. All the more reason to help when the need arises. All the more reason not to wish others knew how dark and frightening it is. All the more reason to cling to hope.

How do we know we'll survive those times? We don't but we do. And when hope eventually returns, it helps us see life will improve. There is sustainable life ahead, one self propelled and waiting to find. Look through the lens of hope and it is there.