It has been awhile since I last posted a blog about Hope. But lately I have been inspired to start again. So let me start with a small recap of a few of the questions and answers from past posts.
What is Hope?
Glass half full?
Wishful Thinking?
Some would say it is just a catch phrase for a candidate’s campaign. For me the Hope Project was a way to find my way in Photography again. It became a reawakening with a new found voice from a long career in photography that had been neglected.
A few years ago I began to talk with people about what they thought Hope meant, or how it impacts our daily lives. These were naive conversations for my own discovery. What I found was that most people want to tell, or assume you are expecting to hear, positive stories of recovery or redemption. I had expected to find some hopelessness out there, but not so much.
Quotes from previous posts:
David Brower: Filmmaker, Director and cinematographer
I suggested that the impact of the word Love is diminished by saying “I love that candy-bar”, just as the meaning of Hope is diminished by saying “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow”. To which he said; “…unless you are a farmer who hopes it does rain tomorrow”.
Duncan Blair: Husband, father, banjo player and attorney who happens to have Parkinson’s disease.
“Hope is more of an innate outlook on life…..one can’t will oneself into a state of Hopefulness by saying, Today I am going to be Hopeful”.
Doris Vaughans: Grief Councilor
“You can’t manufacture Hope. It has to come from a deep place within you. Hope is a knowing that your life deserves to be lived to the fullest.”
I plan to rekindle the project with new enthusiasm. So please look out for new posts about Hope from me in the future. One story that I will post soon is about a Rwandan woman who is now living here in the US, has an amazing story and has just sent me a note with this quote attached:
“Hope Is what will move you, to stand when everyone else is sitting. Hope Is what will make you speak, when everyone else is silent” – Bryan Stevenson
So happy I know you. This is an awe inspiring project. Thank you!
Thanks for looking Marla! You have inspired me!
I still have my “Got Hope?’ bumper sticker from Obama’s first campaign for president on my 2003 Element and it seems more relevant than ever before.
In my practice of psychotherapy, I find that hope is the most important emotion that people need to be able to move beyond pain of any kind. But I also find that they give me such hope. That’s what keeps me going.
I wish that I still had the vehicle that had that bumper sticker on it. There is a post Doris Vaughans that speaks to this in her grief counciling that has stuck with me since I spoke to her. Keep up the good work Tom!