I don’t think hope is wishful thinking.
Hope is the vision committed in action.
Václav Havel who served as the last President of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992, and then as the first President of the Czech Republic, said:
“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
Here is a series of questions that this quote inspired for me:
What kind of lives do we get to build in this vacuum of lockdown?
What makes sense regardless of how things turn out?
What gives us energy, ignites joy?
What do we care about?
What daily rituals and routines do we need to cultivate? What systems do we need to put in place?
“You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear
Image source: There is always hope, Banksy
Finally, only when we accept this situation and come to terms with it, only then we can change.
Hope starts with acceptance, not avoidance.
"Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be." - Dr Wayne Dyer
Now is the time to reflect on our values and live them, daily.
Now is the time to imagine and pilot the emerging future.
I know that we can do better.
I have hope. Do you?