I need hope. You need hope. We need hope.
This decade is proving to be anything but easy. From early 2020 on, together we’ve faced a global pandemic, horrific acts on Black lives, an assault on the US Capitol, a Russian war on Ukraine, school shootings, inflation, a tumultuous job market, the effects of climate change, toxic religion, social isolation, and burnout. Whew.
The scope of these problems cannot be underestimated, and they have no doubt heightened our stress levels.
Hope springs eternal, as we like to say, but where do we find that spring? Let’s take that analogy further. One of the things about natural springs is that, geologically speaking, underground water can build up pressure simply by the work of gravity, such as water inside a hill or a mountain. Sometimes you only need to pound a steel pipe into the ground at the bottom of that hill or mountain and the pressure will cause water to spout from the pipe, seemingly without end.
So too with us humans. We have hope always building up inside us, both individually and collectively. There’s a gravitational pull to it, and it’s hard to stop it no matter how cynical we sometimes become.
What Hope Means
In Hope in the 2020s: Encouragement for Our Time, you’ll discover readings that define what hope means and offer a slice of hope to brighten your day. Each of the thirteen spiritual storytellers, thinkers, and practitioners offer an antidote, an idea, or some action step that ushers you into hope:
- Finding hope even with lingering trauma or grief
- Examining where things go out of control and what to do
- Overcoming toxicity by broadening your perspective
- Understanding that hope isn’t foolishness, but fuel
- Ignoring the loudest voices and better defining you
- Taking breaks to notice the small things
- Freeing our imaginations to seed goodness.
The 2020s don’t seem to be getting any easier, that’s for sure. We’re perhaps living in a decade that will likely be seen as an historical turning point, but to what we’re turning is anybody’s guess, and we’re going to need to find hope wherever we can.
David Morris, Publisher
Contributors: Lemuel R.T. Blackett, Cynthia Vacca Davis, Rebekah Drumsta, Trey Ferguson, Brandon Flanery, Matt Kendziera, Kate J. Meyer, David Morris, R. Scott Okamoto, Julia Rocchi, Frank Rogers Jr., Mick Silva, Marla Taviano
