Thursday, August 27, 2009

CALLING ON HOPE

Troubled people call on hope,
Thinking nothing short of magic can help them now.

They say: ”I am the sum of my experience.”
Hope says: ”Yes, that plus your hopes for the future.”

They say: ”What if I don’t have any hopes for the future?”
Hope says: ”Then we’ll find some.”

They say: ”Where will we find them if no hopes are there?”
Hope says: “We’ll find them in your past experience added to the past experience of others, added to the future you haven’t explored yet.”

”Past experience has tied you in knots,” says Hope. ”Hold on to me as we work at the loosening.”
Then they, with surprising frequency, say: ”Okay.”
And before they have time to think about it, they are working the knots, making room for hope to perform the magic.

1 comment:

aaron said...

This is very nicely said - and I like all the stories, with your perspective. We've been doing some work around relationships for folks with disabilties and realized early on that hopelessness was the hardest part for parents and caregivers, and that having opportunities to share stories of successes was incredibly important. I wish we'd known you were coming to Vancouver earlier - just got a note yesterday from a colleague and I am going out of town in the morning. our blog/newsletter is http://101friends.wordpress.com/