Hope springs eternal in the human breast…
Alexander Pope
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
I hope some day you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.
John Lennon
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
Desmond Tutu
The black hooded specter steps aside, once more, for the baby new year. The past two years have been both actively and passively brutal and traumatic for all of us. Yet we’ve persisted, thanks to our community-wide efforts to reach out and serve despite the relentless stalking coronavirus. What brings us around every corner is the ever-present glimmer of hope.
So, what is this thing called hope? Merriam-Webster says it’s “to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true”. Okay, that’s a beginning… an establishing operation (setting event) for realistic desired outcomes. That leaves us to consider the behaviors that lead the EO to the ultimate reinforcer(s) of hope(s) realized. We won’t find the light without a roadmap of necessary behaviors. Things happen after a whole lot of ‘doing’. It’s not just wishful (aka magical) thinking.
Every one of you has been doing the ‘doing’ for some time now in a myriad of ways. Risk has been exhaustively mitigated. We have continued to serve children in a variety of venues, bolstering their resilience, reinforcing their need for nurture, and providing some relief for exhausted families. Support staff have continued to catch fly balls and line drives, and to scoop up grounders with dedicated precision. All of these ‘doings’ have brought us into temporary pools of light that too often dim before we can heave a sigh of relief.
The coronavirus is still with us and there are shadows ahead. We’ll be doing our best to shine the light of ‘doing’ on those shadows while continuing our quest. Leonard Cohen told us there’s a crack in the world where the light gets in. We’re going to find that crack… I hope.
Thank you all for hoping with me… and happy new year!
dp