Member-only story
5 Ways to Cultivate Hope Every Day
“The thing with feathers,” the poet calls it.
“[The thing] that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words and never stops at all.” Hope does not disappoint us, it is the opposite of disappointment.
Day to day, regardless of what’s going on in your life, hope can fluctuate. We human beings are constantly in a state of flux, moving from darkness to light and back again, wandering existentially between two poles: “I am fierce, amazing, I can do anything!” and “I suck, the world is terrible, how will things ever be good again?” Psychology might say the fluctuation between these poles is evidence of a fragile self-esteem, but theology (the study of God) says this is what it is to be human, depraved, naturally self-absorbed.
That hope though — hope lies deeper beneath the surface. Hope speaks a truth that undergirds us wherever we may be pacing between those two poles. It isn’t something we have to create, but our awareness of it is tuning our souls to sense that solid foundation beneath us, especially for the days when the ground feels like sand slipping between our toes, like a freefall we cannot escape. Here are a few practices to sense the hope that is there:
- Stop catastrophizing and imagine, what will your life be like a year from now? A month from now? Regardless of where you are today and where…
