I’ve been thinking a lot about hope.

What exactly is it?

I’ve been thinking a lot about hope because I feel it fully reemerging in me, after being mostly absent for the better part of three years. Like a little inner flame inside, I want to nurture this emerging hope, and protect it.

For me, hope feels like a warmth inside. It gives me the energy, the desire, and the will to go forward.

I’ve been asking: What is hope’s function? What does it do?

For me, there is a direct synergetic connection between hope and creativity. If the hope goes out, creativity almost immediately fades too. And vise versa. One weaves into the other in an endless cycle: hope, creativity, hope, creativity, hope, creativity…

Hope’s absence has been an extremely disorienting and disheartening experience for me. For my whole life, I was among the hopeful. For some reason, ever since girlhood, no matter what happened, there was some part of me which had my eye on possibility. I believed we could change our lives. I believed we could make something beautiful of our time. I believed we could overcome obstacles if we tried. I believed in having dreams and going for them. This was not something I consciously cultivated, it was just how I was.

Living without hope’s presence has been like walking around with someone else’s brain. It’s felt sort of grey. I’ve continued to create, but felt like there were sand bags strapped to my feet and hands and heart.

The events of the last 3 years, the virus, the shock, the grief, the cracks that were revealed in our institutions, the violence, the way in which people’s fear and isolation manifested in irrational and vehement hatred of their fellow humans, the broken relationships, the lost souls. I saw things I can never unsee and I experienced things I will never forget. My heart was shattered and my understanding of the world, of the institutions, and of the nature of my fellow humans has completely transformed.

I was worried I’d never feel hope again.

But there must be something about hope that is too essential to lose for too long. Maybe hope is out there looking for someone to see it, to feel it. It may be that I need hope in order to survive. Who knows?

The creativity that hope inspires feels like the same force that makes the buds turn to blossoms. Hopeful folks seem to always be up to something! They are actively engaged in life: curious, adventurous, making something of their time.

Hope feels like Spring.

I’ve been asking: How do we help hope along? How do we cultivate it?

Looking back, what I did as a girl, instinctively, was brainwash myself! I collected cheesy motivational songs and I made mixtapes, and then CD’s full of hype songs for the dreamer in me. I used to go running for miles and miles to those mixes, and at the end of my runs, for the final sprint, I’d envision running straight into my dreams & goals. Those songs helped me cut through the nay-saying embedded into the culture I grew up in, and therefore embedded in my own psyche.

I notice I am more hopeful now when I hear and read the stories, songs, and poetry of women who are living their life as an adventure, who are daring in some way & moving through the complexity of life thoughtfully and joyfully – despite adversity. I suppose that’s one of the ways I brainwash myself now and cut through some of the nihilism, and gloom & doom of the current cultural moment.

I do believe that hope can be cultivated just like anything else. And just like most everything worth anything, there is no cookie-cutter way. Everyone’s path there is different.

So, I asking you, dear reader: How do you cultivate hope? How do you protect it?

One of the most hopeful people I know is motivated by helping others, especially his family, he seems to keep hope alive not just for himself, but for those he loves. Another hopeful spirit I love stokes hope by having fun with hobbies, ever tinkering, exploring, and learning something new. For another, is time with friends that keeps her hope alive.

I have learned in these last few years, that hope for me is stoked most powerfully by gathering with others, with some kind of spiritual intention, sharing in music or ritual or stories or dancing or all of the above! I suppose should have been obvious to me, but I now am fully aware.

The Japanese art of Kintsugi, is one of repairing broken pottery by mending it with a laquer and gold or silver or platinum combination, where the breakages, instead of being intentionally hidden, are made more visible and pronounced creating a visual story of brokenness, mended and made even more beautiful for its imperfection.

The Wild Woman Project gatherings of the last year have been piecing my broken heart back together. Beginning with our Winter Immersion of 2022, then our Summer ’22 Through the Roots Retreat, and Circle Leader Training, now, every single week with Wild Woman Underground.

I am in a process of having my heart remade with the laquer-gold of hope.

The breaks will be a forever real & visible part of the my story of my life, but my heart will be intact. Those golden breaks will remind me of what I’ve learned through this harrowing process, and also will be ever made of the courage and laughter and tenderness and love and creativity of my sisters and that beautiful mystery we weave when we come together.

So here’s to hope, that mysterious force; May we nurture it when it visits, protect it & cultivate it as we make our tiny contributions to the vast story of womanhood and the extraordinary evolution of Life on Earth.

YOUR TURN

In the comments below and/or in the privacy of your own heart, please answer any or all of the following questions:

What does hope feel like to you?
What is it’s function; What does it do?
How do YOU cultivate it?

Really really can’t wait to read them.

P.s ~ If you’d like to explore this topic more, please join me and Wild-hearted women from around the world for our New Moon Meditation Adventure where “The Mystery & Magic of Hope” will be our theme! 

Join us for an hour-long New Moon Meditation Adventure on December 30th!

Online, from anywhere.

Using a dynamic meditation journey, we will tune into the New Moon, to your own Inner Guidance, synced up with wild-hearted women from around the world. This offering will include music, storytelling, meditation, journaling prompts & intention-setting.

Can’t make it live? No worries. All participants will receive a copy of the recording with 24 hours of the session.

Claim Your Seat!

We have Wild Woman Project-trained Circle facilitators is 26 countries, and 44 out of the 50 United States.

Find a Circle Near You.