WHAT I BELIEVE ABOUT HOPE WORK

What have I learned about hope work?
I have learned to appreciate questions.
And expect unexpectable answers
To go forward on pure speculation
And take time to secure the foundation
I have learned to be bold and audacious
And ask questions when others are suspicious
That hope work can often mean hard work
And hope work is frequently fun.

Why do I bother with hope work?
Because hope, according to the research,
Is definitely positively associated
With success in many achievements
And coping with terrible adversity
And hope work ultimately helps me
Keep from telling them just to be positive
Find a place of shared understanding
With those who are tired from struggling
While I listen pondering and wondering
What I can do to help.

What do I watch for in hope work?
For hope that is quietly implicit
For chances to make it explicit
And give it an on-stage performance
With lights and applause and encores
For ways it can be the foundation
That our counselling can rest upon.

What do I know about hopeful?
That hopeful is a way of being
That I can become more hopeful
If I hang around hopeful people
And ask myself hope-focussed questions
And remember that hope is contagious
And notice the things that are hopeful
Then tell other people about them
So that they can reflect what is hopeful
And send it right back to me.

When do I proudly do hope work?
When people are asking for hope work
Which happens amazingly often
When hope is observably absent
Obscured by the fears of tomorrow
And the lack of a way to address them
When hope work makes sense in the context
Of a credible counselling plan.

What’s in a hope worker’s toolbox?
There are scrapers to gently uncover
The hopes that lie quietly waiting
For something to bring them to life
There are highlighting words to adorn them
And respect for the hopes that seem hopeless
And unbridled curiosity about any of them
From which anything good might grow

There are searchers exploring the history
For things that were better than expected
And impossible things that were possible
And times when things seemed to be terrible
But were better than ever they seemed.

There is string for connecting the senses
To things in the world that are hopeful
To pictures and fragrance and music
And hope heroes beckoning forward
Showing the way to be hopeful.

There are tools to envision the future
A future desired and embracing
As if it really could happen
As if it were already happening
And tools to build the hope up
During the time of waiting
Tools to relieve the burden
And chart the way to go.

What have I learned about hope work?
To respect that it’s always in progress
To forgive it for not being perfect
To honour and learn from its critics
To follow the paths where it leads me
And thank it for showing me so much
Of a world that I might not have noticed
If hope work had stayed in the shadows
Instead of tempting me to try it
On a day when I might have ignored it
And chosen some other career.