Hope Is Good In Action

I don't know how you're feeling, but the news has been pretty overwhelming lately. Kim and I took a moment to sit on our couch to talk about it a few days ago, and I shared a quote with her that I find helpful in times like these.

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree today."

And it got me thinking about hope.

We often define hope as believing tomorrow will be better, an optimistic emotion about the future. This weak expression of hope is the trite thoughts and prayers after a shooting that believes things will get better if we just wish it to be so.

But real hope is rooted in action. It is planting an apple tree believing that its blossoms will help the pollinators and its fruit nourish our bodies. It is having a hard but respectful conversation with a lover believing it will make the relationship stronger. It is listening to a child's imaginative stories, making a dinner, planting a garden. It is going to a protest, remembering to vote, giving money to a good cause, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, comforting the dying, fighting for rights of the oppressed.

We are living through some frightening times right now and it is easy to feel overwhelmed, especially if you are standing on the American belief that you should have the strength and answers to overcome every challenge on your own. Look…I am not a political or military strategist. I don't have all the answers to make our world a loving and peaceful place. But I do know how to make my home a loving and peaceful place, and I believe that what I do here will expand beyond my property lines. I can grow a strip of prairie in my backyard with native flowers that will feed the birds and help every garden in our neighborhood be more fruitful. I can have popsicles in the freezer for the neighbor boys and let them make a witches' brew in my fire pit so their mother can have 30 minutes of quiet time. I can rest when I need it because rest is doing good too. Even apple trees rest.

Hope is good in action--a gift given today to ourselves, to our community, and to our world. Yes, the world will go to pieces. It always does. But hope believes that the good we do today will give us strength to face the hard times as they come. Hope is the powerful reminder that we do not face hard times alone.