That Whirly, Swirly, Feathery Thing

It is a “thing with feathers;” an act of resistance; in communion with “seeds of goodness…waiting to sprout when the conditions are right.”

Mystery, perpetuation, longing, are all byproducts of this force that endures because of us and in spite of us.

This force is Hope. We all yearn for it, and we all know it well.

Hope exists between our cells; in the space where the eternal thrum of life-force is yet to be named or defined. Hope exists in darkness. Humans, and all the messiness our existence causes, are the reason hope exists and the very reason it is needed in the first place. Yet when Hope is expected to carry a burden heavier than its fair share—that burden being definitive Change—it will falter and stumble and fail.

Hope does not create change. It is concurrent to it—much as the alveoli in our lungs are integral to breathing but are not lungs themselves. Hope is the stage, but not the players. Hope is the battlefield, but not the victorious battle.

Hope is not the heavy lifter, because Change cannot happen without Action.

To Hope is an act of resistance in and of itself, but cannot change that which it resists.

Hope is absurdist, but not absurd. It is not rooted in rationality, fact, logic, or consequence, but is the cornerstone of perpetuation. We are often at a loss to explain why Hope exists, but would never question that it does. What an agent for chaos! Uncontrollable, unstoppable, unrelated to change in its own right, but a bridge to change if built correctly.

Hope is paradox: delicate and tender while also the strongest force humanity has in our arsenal. Hope mutates but does not cease. By itself, however, Hope is a lonely isolate. Deficient. Incomplete. Hope, alone, cannot achieve that which its very nature yearns for: change.

The world is dark and full of chaos. We are careening into desolation and war; into long-formulating consequence of greed, desperation, and malignant isolation. And it is chaos; all of it. But so is Hope.

Although Hope is not enough by itself.

Until next week,

Love, Light, and Action,

Steph x