Subscribe in a readerLive Inside Hope
The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. – Barbara Kingsolver
Have you figured out what you hope for? Do you think about them on a daily or regular basis? Do you adjust your hopes when you become clearer about what you want? Do you share your hopes and dreams with people who are close to you?
Using your imagination in combination with what you like and dislike is all that is needed to create a new hope. A hope or dream is a positive statement of a future event. Hope and dream statements never contain the word “but”. An example of a positive hope; “I’m going to take a long drive in the mountains after I get my brand new Toyota Rav 4.” An example of a hope with a “but” statement; “I’m going to take a long drive in the mountains after I get my brand new Toyota Rav 4, but it will take a long time to save enough money.” Leave out the “buts”.
In my opinion, living inside your hope, consists of four parts:
- Believing in the hope.
- Feeling and experiencing passion when you think or talk about it.
- Realizing that your brain doesn’t know the difference between your future situation (your imagination) and the present.
- Based on 1 and 2, taking inspired action towards that hope.
Inspired action comes from having a solid and clear hope or dream. You take action towards your goal because you feel the passion of your desire. Uninspired action is simply action without being attached to a hope or dream. With uninspired action, a lot seems to be going on but nothing is really being accomplished.
I’m going for the most you can do which is living under the roof of your hopes. What about you?
Michael
To me a new car is a desire or want but not a hope. You can’t live in a car although some people are forced to. ML King is a good example of somebody who lived inside his hope. It didn’t matter that the hope couldn’t be realized even within his lifetime – it still was with him every day all the time. Another example is two ordinary women from Northern Ireland who helped put a stop to the violence Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan.
My hope is about community. To live in community with people from preschool to 90’s and above. To help each other every step of the way. We have a covenant we say together every week. Most people seem to know the words and don’t read it. It’s quite demanding and I’m sure a lot of us don’t do a great job in following it. But we have the hope in front of us and it gives us courage.
Comment by Michael — January 15, 2010 @ 10:28 pm