Let’s activate hope, not be satisfied with the usual “hopefully this will work out” kind of hope. It’s very obvious that “thoughts and prayers” have absolutely no effect. What can each one of us do in our own lives, however rich or poor we are, to make society better?
We might try just trying to live genuinely and spread compassion and love for others but most of all love ourselves. If you can’t love yourself then you can’t spread that love to others. For me I try to be kind to others and play my guitar a great deal. I think music spreads love and kindness without a need for language. Words sometimes get in the way.
Speaking of music, Sara Bareilles wrote this song, "Dear Hope" a few years ago for her Apple TV Series Little Voice. For me, it is a phenomenal expression of trying to hang onto hope when you really don't feel it. Sara wrote the words and music for the Tony-nominated musical, Waitress. I love Broadway too. I have never lived in New York, but I love it there and have seen several musicals on Broadway over the years. There is nothing quite like them. Due to a fluke in timing, I was able to see Sara perform the lead role in Waitress in New York a few years ago. I present to you, Dear Hope:
Thank you for doing this project! Hope is talked about by many but it can be elusive if we do not know how to recognize it and how to nurture it. I think it is part of our humanity otherwise we would not still be here! Yet, I think we have never learned to see it or learned how to create it. Maybe it is simply done through our little, daily deeds or connections to other living things. As one who speaks to her pets and the birds in my yard, I would like to believe we are all connected in hope and love.
Mary you bring a clarity alive! Thank you for your continued support during this tumultuous time! My prayers go out to the Ukrainian people🙏🏻 Forever in my heart and thoughts.
To me, hope is knowing that as a physically disabled person I have abilities that can never be taken away from me. I would have to let them become irrelevant in a relationship. If I were to let this happen, I would lose hope.
Hope / creativity is tied to instinct and intuition which, if I mindfully listen to, will carry me through the tough times in the long run.
I'm going to ponder this. I realized late in life that my two main mind/heart characteristics are hope and curiosity. But am looking at what that means. So, pause and journal a la Nat Goldberg's Writing Practice ( studied with her off and on for 25 years). Tonight as I listen to the news I realized one important thing: Gaslighting hope is a bad idea and it has been done too much by the news folks ( there is a negative " source bias" there). Two examples are: Negative coverage of Hillary Clinton's candidacy when actually the majority of people loved her and wanted her as our first woman president ( or that she was most qualified and our best chance) but most newspeople magnified the lies and the male rallies and Andrea Mitchell and others I could name were very down on her, dampening our hope. These last few nights I've noticed the dampening of hope about the situation in Ukraine having anything but a horrible outcome, taking up airtime and oxygen that delayed getting to creative views of how passionate and tough and persistent the Ukrainian people are and other options for NATO like making Ukraine's airspace a no fly zone. Miracles only happen when we hope for the improbable and seek ways to make them happen, say I.
Emily Dickinson who lived the last two decades of her life in one room knew about hope. She wrote “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words and never stops at all”. And Anne Frank knew how to keep hope alive. “In spite of everything I still believe people are good at heart” Hope is a newborn baby. Hope is that photo of thousands of Russians standing in protest and solidarity for Ukraine. Risking being arrested.
I know this feeling. Last night I had my first opening night in over 5 years. The last time I was in a show, my stepdaughter’s 4 day old baby died suddenly and unexpectedly. I froze on stage. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to get back on stage.
Last summer I had the opportunity to go back to college to finish my bachelors degree in theatre that I started over 30 years ago. (Life happened) I eased my way back into the college routine at 51. I made the dean’s list for the first time ever, and was cast in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Yeah, I play the grandma, yeah, I’m surrounded by 18-20 year olds. But we got a standing ovation (Broadway isn’t the only live theatre being missed, you know) and when I entered the lobby, students who had only ever seen me in passing or working in the costume shop applauded me. Me, the one who is the same age as their mom.
After separating from my kids’ dad and moving 150 from my teen kids (their dad is a huge fan of a certain relative of yours. I had to get out. The kids are fine) and living with my mom, it’s been a year. But last night… I was ecstatic. I felt joy and gratitude for the first time in over a decade. Even with all the crap in the world, I finally have hope.
Brava to you, Tracie! I remember the feeling well! My 2008 stage debut was as an old dead woman who came back to life to prepare her own wake. For the 1st 20 minutes of "Feast of the Flying Cow", I was visible and dead. The incredibly talented young man who directed the show has since died by suicide and I'm still floored by it!
This is a fantastic idea Mary and I also thank Laurie/Lori (not sure of the spelling) and Mike for kicking this off. I really need all the advice I can get to hang onto hope and channel that into creative endeavors. I'm inside my head WAY TOO often and especially over the past three days I've recognized old patterns emerging where I need to know everything going on in the worldand I need to break them. I need to step back like you did Mary for my own mental health. So looking forward to this coming Wednesday's post.
Thanks for the comments on hope and creativity. I am a painter and I have been unable to paint for about two years. The chaos and the isolation and the restrictions just stopped me in my tracks. Your comments tied some things together for me and I think I may now be able to power through and pick up my brushes once again. Please continue your Wed focus on hope!
This is a wonderful place to begin . I’ve always felt that hope is the most powerful place people can summon their talents and wisdom in such a way that bonds us all together . An innovative force that’s helps us to help each other .
I’ve been away from this conversation for a while . I do check in from time to time here
It’s not for lack of interest. I enjoy reading all comments here I get a glimpse into each of your thoughts feelings , we are connected . Yes I understand you Mary when you said you were tearing up during the play . The longing for the things we most enjoy in life means a great deal to us all I just recently realized this myself and took some time off . Thank you so much .
I felt something truly different here tonight. For me it was peculiar as I revisited in my memory a number of things from my childhood in relation to my mother and father. I'd been very sad and throughout the evening I'd tear up until I could redirect my memories to pull out of a deep hole I'd been feeling myself falling into and down. I saw a giant pine tree my friends and I had named Big Ben. We were afraid to go past him doing our runs through the woods. Little kids. That's all we were with this great freedom that often brought fear. I feel that now as an adult and more so tonight after watching and listening as you spoke. As an adult with a lifelong friend, centuries friends via our ancestors we now read and write about, each of us, but separately tied. I saw this setting as the beginning to show me how to find the way to be from those innocent days of play and learning. Thank you for this tonight, especially tonight, where I feel at home and anxious and willing to grab a new structure such that I am me again.
Your words are very touching and so true. I feel the same way some days it’s truly inescapable. At this time of separation from my family and friends , gave me such insight to my feelings physically and emotionally I was on such a low I didn’t want to get out of bed I’ve never felt this way before . I really had to deal with issues in my own way Tonight I saw Mary’s post and I didn’t feel so out of place . The clarity of this woman / Mary calling for what needs to be front and center in our lives is worth putting our best selves forward .
The birds don’t fly any more here where I am I pay attention to my surroundings Things are different now and we need to rely on each other more so than ever even if it means that we must let a life long friend go that you shared your secrets joys and pains . My dad always said solving a problem depends on how long your willing to keep it a problem; we’ll yes but through it all the journey is the hard part. I really thought I had it together I woke up one day called my coworker to work my buildings and drove to an old friends home unannounced she opened the door and said welcome home and I just fell into her arms crying and shaking uncontrollably. We talked for long hours and she told me she was a little envious of me , here a woman highly educated well traveled an important position in her job telling me how she has to literally take coworkers by the hand to do a job they were hired to do while I have the skills to maintain buildings and interact with people who depend on me who treat me with more respect Hearing that blew me away I told her this wasn’t the life I choose that my parents had other plans and I had to make my own way. She always made me feel her equal and we give each other strategic advice This was time well spent for her and me . Thanks for sharing Maureen.
In Garland, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas, which is where I live, the birds still fly around here. What state do you live in where the birds do not fly?
Mary! You entertain us! You enlighten us! You astound us! You lift our hearts up! And SUCH A GREAT VIDEO!
Let’s activate hope, not be satisfied with the usual “hopefully this will work out” kind of hope. It’s very obvious that “thoughts and prayers” have absolutely no effect. What can each one of us do in our own lives, however rich or poor we are, to make society better?
We might try just trying to live genuinely and spread compassion and love for others but most of all love ourselves. If you can’t love yourself then you can’t spread that love to others. For me I try to be kind to others and play my guitar a great deal. I think music spreads love and kindness without a need for language. Words sometimes get in the way.
Speaking of music, Sara Bareilles wrote this song, "Dear Hope" a few years ago for her Apple TV Series Little Voice. For me, it is a phenomenal expression of trying to hang onto hope when you really don't feel it. Sara wrote the words and music for the Tony-nominated musical, Waitress. I love Broadway too. I have never lived in New York, but I love it there and have seen several musicals on Broadway over the years. There is nothing quite like them. Due to a fluke in timing, I was able to see Sara perform the lead role in Waitress in New York a few years ago. I present to you, Dear Hope:
https://youtu.be/uu3Uvs9hIpY
Thank you for doing this project! Hope is talked about by many but it can be elusive if we do not know how to recognize it and how to nurture it. I think it is part of our humanity otherwise we would not still be here! Yet, I think we have never learned to see it or learned how to create it. Maybe it is simply done through our little, daily deeds or connections to other living things. As one who speaks to her pets and the birds in my yard, I would like to believe we are all connected in hope and love.
Yes! All creatures great and small. ❤️
A great idea. Combining creativity with hope got me through the pandemic.
Mary you bring a clarity alive! Thank you for your continued support during this tumultuous time! My prayers go out to the Ukrainian people🙏🏻 Forever in my heart and thoughts.
Your message gives me Hope. As I listened I began to think about what gives me hope...
To me, hope is knowing that as a physically disabled person I have abilities that can never be taken away from me. I would have to let them become irrelevant in a relationship. If I were to let this happen, I would lose hope.
Hope / creativity is tied to instinct and intuition which, if I mindfully listen to, will carry me through the tough times in the long run.
I'm with you on that!
Since Mary's, "The Laboratories of Hope" is on hold, here is the link to my post,
"Hope Is Intertwined With Muscle Energy"
https://carolinegrevelle.substack.com/p/hope-is-intertwined-with-muscle-energy
I'm going to ponder this. I realized late in life that my two main mind/heart characteristics are hope and curiosity. But am looking at what that means. So, pause and journal a la Nat Goldberg's Writing Practice ( studied with her off and on for 25 years). Tonight as I listen to the news I realized one important thing: Gaslighting hope is a bad idea and it has been done too much by the news folks ( there is a negative " source bias" there). Two examples are: Negative coverage of Hillary Clinton's candidacy when actually the majority of people loved her and wanted her as our first woman president ( or that she was most qualified and our best chance) but most newspeople magnified the lies and the male rallies and Andrea Mitchell and others I could name were very down on her, dampening our hope. These last few nights I've noticed the dampening of hope about the situation in Ukraine having anything but a horrible outcome, taking up airtime and oxygen that delayed getting to creative views of how passionate and tough and persistent the Ukrainian people are and other options for NATO like making Ukraine's airspace a no fly zone. Miracles only happen when we hope for the improbable and seek ways to make them happen, say I.
Emily Dickinson who lived the last two decades of her life in one room knew about hope. She wrote “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words and never stops at all”. And Anne Frank knew how to keep hope alive. “In spite of everything I still believe people are good at heart” Hope is a newborn baby. Hope is that photo of thousands of Russians standing in protest and solidarity for Ukraine. Risking being arrested.
Looking forward to this. Given how insightful and thoughtful this group is, I know I will learn a lot and be inspired. Thanks for all you are doing!
Ronda C, I agree with you!
I know this feeling. Last night I had my first opening night in over 5 years. The last time I was in a show, my stepdaughter’s 4 day old baby died suddenly and unexpectedly. I froze on stage. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to get back on stage.
Last summer I had the opportunity to go back to college to finish my bachelors degree in theatre that I started over 30 years ago. (Life happened) I eased my way back into the college routine at 51. I made the dean’s list for the first time ever, and was cast in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Yeah, I play the grandma, yeah, I’m surrounded by 18-20 year olds. But we got a standing ovation (Broadway isn’t the only live theatre being missed, you know) and when I entered the lobby, students who had only ever seen me in passing or working in the costume shop applauded me. Me, the one who is the same age as their mom.
After separating from my kids’ dad and moving 150 from my teen kids (their dad is a huge fan of a certain relative of yours. I had to get out. The kids are fine) and living with my mom, it’s been a year. But last night… I was ecstatic. I felt joy and gratitude for the first time in over a decade. Even with all the crap in the world, I finally have hope.
Brava to you, Tracie! I remember the feeling well! My 2008 stage debut was as an old dead woman who came back to life to prepare her own wake. For the 1st 20 minutes of "Feast of the Flying Cow", I was visible and dead. The incredibly talented young man who directed the show has since died by suicide and I'm still floored by it!
This is a fantastic idea Mary and I also thank Laurie/Lori (not sure of the spelling) and Mike for kicking this off. I really need all the advice I can get to hang onto hope and channel that into creative endeavors. I'm inside my head WAY TOO often and especially over the past three days I've recognized old patterns emerging where I need to know everything going on in the worldand I need to break them. I need to step back like you did Mary for my own mental health. So looking forward to this coming Wednesday's post.
Thanks for the comments on hope and creativity. I am a painter and I have been unable to paint for about two years. The chaos and the isolation and the restrictions just stopped me in my tracks. Your comments tied some things together for me and I think I may now be able to power through and pick up my brushes once again. Please continue your Wed focus on hope!
This is a wonderful place to begin . I’ve always felt that hope is the most powerful place people can summon their talents and wisdom in such a way that bonds us all together . An innovative force that’s helps us to help each other .
I’ve been away from this conversation for a while . I do check in from time to time here
It’s not for lack of interest. I enjoy reading all comments here I get a glimpse into each of your thoughts feelings , we are connected . Yes I understand you Mary when you said you were tearing up during the play . The longing for the things we most enjoy in life means a great deal to us all I just recently realized this myself and took some time off . Thank you so much .
We have a laboratory now !
I felt something truly different here tonight. For me it was peculiar as I revisited in my memory a number of things from my childhood in relation to my mother and father. I'd been very sad and throughout the evening I'd tear up until I could redirect my memories to pull out of a deep hole I'd been feeling myself falling into and down. I saw a giant pine tree my friends and I had named Big Ben. We were afraid to go past him doing our runs through the woods. Little kids. That's all we were with this great freedom that often brought fear. I feel that now as an adult and more so tonight after watching and listening as you spoke. As an adult with a lifelong friend, centuries friends via our ancestors we now read and write about, each of us, but separately tied. I saw this setting as the beginning to show me how to find the way to be from those innocent days of play and learning. Thank you for this tonight, especially tonight, where I feel at home and anxious and willing to grab a new structure such that I am me again.
Your words are very touching and so true. I feel the same way some days it’s truly inescapable. At this time of separation from my family and friends , gave me such insight to my feelings physically and emotionally I was on such a low I didn’t want to get out of bed I’ve never felt this way before . I really had to deal with issues in my own way Tonight I saw Mary’s post and I didn’t feel so out of place . The clarity of this woman / Mary calling for what needs to be front and center in our lives is worth putting our best selves forward .
The birds don’t fly any more here where I am I pay attention to my surroundings Things are different now and we need to rely on each other more so than ever even if it means that we must let a life long friend go that you shared your secrets joys and pains . My dad always said solving a problem depends on how long your willing to keep it a problem; we’ll yes but through it all the journey is the hard part. I really thought I had it together I woke up one day called my coworker to work my buildings and drove to an old friends home unannounced she opened the door and said welcome home and I just fell into her arms crying and shaking uncontrollably. We talked for long hours and she told me she was a little envious of me , here a woman highly educated well traveled an important position in her job telling me how she has to literally take coworkers by the hand to do a job they were hired to do while I have the skills to maintain buildings and interact with people who depend on me who treat me with more respect Hearing that blew me away I told her this wasn’t the life I choose that my parents had other plans and I had to make my own way. She always made me feel her equal and we give each other strategic advice This was time well spent for her and me . Thanks for sharing Maureen.
Thank you, Paula, for sharing this.
In Garland, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas, which is where I live, the birds still fly around here. What state do you live in where the birds do not fly?
This sounds like a good idea. I look forward to learning more. Wishing you well after such a bad week news-wise.