In a most recent time of transition, I’ve recollected a little something…
Fear is a solo emotion. Hope, on the other hand, is a communal attitude.
Fear is a lock the doors, shut the windows impulse which just surrounds you in the dark when you so desperately need light. Many years back, on a very sad day for my family which in hindsight was even more traumatic than imagined at the time, on a gut instinct, I kept a family commitment and took us all out and kept that promise.
In my most recent transition, I did not reach out for any sense of drama with those on the periphery of my life. I figure if they were to be on the other side of the transition they would be there. If not, there was no reason to reason to force the situation. Nonetheless, I doubled-down on family and my closest connections and discovered some new ones along the way. Most importantly, I intentionally got out and about when every instinct demanded a hunkering down.
There has been a vacation time or two, service to others in times of their mourning or celebrations of new life (and not my own,) service to other built upon my expertise, and a uniquely wonderful celebration of Thanksgiving in a moment when others might forget gratitude.
In a retrospection of the Boston Marathon bombing, it was suggested that Optimism is at the center of resilience and that Resilience is about connectedness. Hope, it seems, truly is a communal attitude.
Fear is the solo walk through the graveyard on a cold, dark Halloween night. Hope is recognizing that you every day walk in communion with God’s holy ones in the illumination of All Saints’ Day. Choose Hope.
