If you've never tuned in to Krista Tippet's weekly radio show, On Being, you really must. I'm a new listener myself, but already a huge fan. I nearly wrecked the car when I first tuned in a few weeks ago, as Tippet's guest, Parker Palmer, read a brief excerpt from author Reverend Victoria Safford's piece, Hope. Riveted by the language, I found myself deeply stirred by the message, the lesson that hope is something fierce, something courageous. I sensed this truth months ago as I watched friends hold on to hope and press in to faith, despite all the mess telling them to do otherwise. I knew then, and know still today, that my soul longs to be called amongst those that have the audacity to hope.
With one hand on the wheel, I rustled around for pen and paper, desperate to record the whereabouts of Safford's words. I found them in Brain Pickings recent article, What Hope Really Means, and want to share them with you today. If you are interested in hearing Palmer's reading of these words (which you should be), you can listen here...
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Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope — not the prudent gates of Optimism, which are somewhat narrower; nor the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense; nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness, which creak on shrill and angry hinges (people cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through); nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is gonna be all right.” But a different, sometimes lonely place, the place of truth-telling, about your own soul first of all and its condition, the place of resistance and defiance, the piece of ground from which you see the world both as it is and as it could be, as it will be; the place from which you glimpse not only struggle, but joy in the struggle. And we stand there, beckoning and calling, telling people what we are seeing, asking people what they see.
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A group of audacious hope-holders join me every quarter for a 30 Day Writing Challenge. We gather to voice our stories - the pain, the struggle, the joy and the light - and we invite you to join us!
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