The subject tonight is Hope
And for tomorrow night as well,
As a matter of fact
I know of no better topic
For us to discuss
So that we can all truly
Live!
The illuminated and radiant Persian poet, Hafiz, wrote The Subject Tonight Is Love.
Standing on his shoulders for a starting point and introduction to this project, I am working on a book of Hope this year. Every Tuesday I’ll be sharing with you an excerpt, an essay, a poem, and a quote on Hope. In doing this work for nearly 15 years, and doing my own work always simultaneously, it is clear that some of the most important work I can do is inspire Hope in the hopeless. As this has been clear for some time, many things have coalesced over the last six months or so that have allowed me to realize that Hope is my fundamental and foundational organizing principle. It is the scaffolding that I have unknowingly been hanging all of my sometimes disparate-seeming studies, interests, learnings, mind and heart trainings, and work on for well over a decade.
My goal and commitment to you, and my gift to myself, is to bring to you by email and blog every week a little bite and bit of what I’ve been working on toward the actualization of this book. It will be part psychology, part spirituality, and part practicality. It will be a why to and a how to manual that will be backward, present-centered and future focused. Drawing from hope in religion, Viktor Frankl, practical applications of Hope Theory, speaking with survivors of suicide loss, and those who choose to live well in times of war, cancer and other difficulties, this will be organized in a way to be depth-oriented, life affirming, practical and empowering for the hopeful and the hopeless alike.
I hope you will join me on this journey and I thank you all for any thoughts and feedback.
Yours on the path.