“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
With the ongoing pandemic presenting us with moments of deep and thorough reflection there is an awareness that life's trials can create a depressing mood, with pessimism a growing reminder that it is during these challenging times we discover a voice within us inspiring to rise above our melancholy, to face the sun and brighter days just over the horizon inviting us to remain calm and focused living one day at a time.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.~Matthew 6:34
During her war time service in West Wales my mother recalled climbing a nearby hill to watch her home town of Swansea, some sixty miles away being bombed on three successive nights 19 to 21 February 1941. The night skies were bright red leading to day time black smoke smothering the distant horizon. The telephone lines had been destroyed with no prospect of knowing whether her parents were still alive. A few days later a letter would arrive written by my grandfather detailing the damage to Swansea, and that all was well with the family. Despite her concerns for her parents my mother remained optimistic that all would be well inspired by her inner self asking her to fear for nothing.
Our Father invites each of us to reach out to Him in those moments when we believe all is lost, with deep foreboding that we cannot cope, and worry leading us down no hope avenue filled with misery. The Father's response encourages us not to worry, and to remain focused on all that today presents us to live in celebration of our life's gifts reminding us of our good fortune.
Follow your heart, listen to your inner voice, requesting you to remain patient, even asking you to visit a neighbour needing human company, and words of comfort that tomorrow, and after tomorrow will introduce us to better days.
“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
― Howard Zinn
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