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Life Without Hope May Be Our Best Chance for Peace

Are you, like John Mayer sings, “waiting on the world to change?” Or are you trying, as Gandhi advised to “be the change that you wish to see in the world?” Maybe, like too many of us you’re humming that old Dusty Springfield song, “just wishing and hoping and thinking and praying. Planning and dreaming …”

In her poem “Hope” is the Thing with Feathers, Emily Dickinson creates a metaphor of hope through a little bird “that perches in the soul” and “never stops—at all.” It’s always there inside. It never asks for anything and it never takes flight. It never reacts or participates.

That’s the thing about hope. It just hangs out with us, especially during dark nights. Although hope offers encouragement, it rarely mobilizes our energy or our actions.

Woody Allen parodied this metaphor in his book Without Feathers, about his neurotic sense of hopelessness especially in regard to God and death. It’s funny. It’s counter-intuitive and it made me wonder is the opposite of hope really despair? Or is it participation?

As a young girl growing up in the heart of the Bible belt, hope was affiliated with the concept of victim. “I hope that God will hear me.” It actually lowered expectations and consciousness because hope became something that was always delayed or put on the shelf. It was about waiting for the knight in shining armor or some magical evangelical leader to be the change. In my early life experience, it taught me to give my power away. It put the responsibility on someone else—to live a life in the fading light of day.

Energetically, hope is fading, a light pale orange, where expectation and participation rise exponentially at the other end of the spectrum like a bright orange sun.

President Obama took hope toward the other end of that spectrum when he wrote about the audacity of hope to move us forward as a nation as citizens of the world. But if we are truly willing to take big risks—to be daring, fearless brave, and courageous, we must act and act consistently.

One way is to live daily what you say hourly—to really model all the things that are significantly important to you. Instead of hoping one day the animals’ lives won’t be taken needlessly, live in the world of being a vegetarian. When you demonstrate your path, others may choose to join you. This is how change happens. But positive change only works if you stay in alignment with the light and proactive in everything you do. In other words, are you the same person in your morning meditation or Wednesday evening yoga class or Sunday morning church service?

Don’t answer until you check your recent tweets or your latest comments on a friend’s Facebook page. Too many of us are shouting out in a persona not worthy of showing up in person. Too many of us are looking to affirm ourselves and our opinions rather than inform ourselves. To listen and learn. To stand in each other’s shoes.

“We must remember our words have everlasting power. They don’t disappear in the ethers. They stick to us. They stick to others. Consider your message.”

In no way does that mean to stop being bold or audacious. I want you to live your truth out loud. I want you to grow beyond hope—to move from good to amazing! To activate the soul’s mission by opening the heart of the world.

So give me your pluck and your grit. Your energized and your radiant spirit. Give me your light that moves beyond your life experience. Give me your peace and I’ll join you.

We don’t have to wait on the world to change.

Actually, we want to create a new world. The world we know is possible in our soul.

This is why we are here.

Rev. Dr. Temple Hayes
Rev. Dr. Temple Hayeshttps://templehayes.com/
Described as a prophet and mystic for our times and the spiritual leader the world needs today, Temple Hayes is a Difference Maker, Spiritual Leader, Author, International Motivational Speaker, Humanitarian, Life Rights Advocate, Shamanic Practitioner, and President and Founder of Life Rights and Global Peace Workers. LEADING A COMMUNITY: She has served many years globally as a Spiritual Leader of New Thought communities that transcend religious denominations, embrace all ethnicities, and reach beyond national borders, as well as on the leadership team of the Association of Global New Thought. 

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5 CONVERSATIONS

  1. I believe that our thinking is made of hope, because we evaluate our future every minute, even if only for the next minute, and we want it to be a positive future. Therefore hope has a logical basis that projects us into the future. The term hope, in Latin “spes”, in fact derives from the Greek word “elpìs” which originally means “desire”. Now, since nobody wants evil for himself, hope since ancient times has meant tending towards good. So we can say that hoping is almost a biological necessity for the individual, close to the imperative of survival, and I believe that society has a duty to protect it.
    Looking to the future thinking it better than the present and wanting good for ourselves is a need of our kind. Because it helps us to overcome difficult times. And it is also important when dealing with diseases.
    Of course, nobody denies the importance of action. However, I believe that when we start acting there is hope everywhere. Hope and action are the two keywords in personal or professional strategic plans.
    Acting with hope resolves. We need to reason to make what we love to see realized as likely as possible.

  2. “That’s the thing about hope. It just hangs out with us, especially during dark nights. Although hope offers encouragement, it rarely mobilizes our energy or our actions.” I love what you’ve written Temple. When in difficulty the mind so desperately jumps to hope and positive thinking to avoid the discomfort – and that’s exactly what’s taking us away from peace and mobilised action. Stay with the discomfort, absorb what it’s teaching and move forward whole-heartedly – no longer in resistance to part of ourselves.

  3. Rev. Dr. Temple Hayes, your article really resonated with me. One section that caught my attention was, “Live daily what you say hourly—to really model all the things that are significantly important to you.” When we walk our walk while we talk our talk we get to where we are going with dignity and honesty. Thanks for the reminder. Welcome to the BIZCAT Family. Sharing.

  4. Such a fascinating piece on hope dear Temple! I’ve been particularly enjoying it since it resonates so much with a message I sent to a close friend yesterday, and one of my recently shared essays on BizCatalyst respectively:

    1. I am more and more convinced persuing my mission and leaving the desired legacy is much more likely to happen implicitly: simply through modelling the servant leadership, treating others as whole people (use my mind creatively, pay me fairly, treat me kindly in serving human needs in principled ways) instead of “things”: a side effect of the industrial age era when all what was needed from a person was the body. This is, to me the most effictive way to implicitly influence the transformation and make it tempting on a daily basis!

    2. The truth I am currently facing and sharing with you is that I am not that confident in my ability to effectively guide people who are too different from the miserable perfectionist I was. I am not sure whether what worked for me would work for everybody, since I didn’t use any technique, and that I found my way every time I was discouraged and doubting if it was worth the pain through remembering why I was doing it in the first place. I am figuring out I simply cannot convince people of the nobility of what MY drive is, that I can only respect what THEY are looking for, whether it is feeling better about themselves, more confident, or simply learning some charisma tips.

    “The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.” ~ Stephen Covey

    I need to admit I am really tired of investing so much effort and not seeing concrete results… Maybe I am more effective when it comes to implicitly inspire change through modelling the servant leadership. This is at least the feedback I have been receiving from so many individuals on a daily basis, and which is making my heart dance every single time.

    “There are so many things I ignore, so many I will probably never know, so many I will always have some doubt about! But what I know for sure is my being, and the power of our energy & free acts of kindness in uplifting people around us and in building trust in the long run.”

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