Joyous 2023 to all of our readers and followers.
This year we'll be giving over a couple of posts a month to our theme for the year: Hope.
Eco-anxiety, grief, climate despair run rampant today. The news media only deepens this and often takes us to even darker places, as it demonstrates in full color the worst of our world.
Though awareness of these developments in the outer world is crucially important, we often ignore the detrimental effects that they have on our inner world until the despair is so tangible it ferments into cynicism and/or depression. When we're stuck in these states, we can no longer be of service to the Earth, to the world, or to ourselves.
The antidote is Hope. But how to find that hope with so many sad, bad truths swirling around us. That is what we hope to explore this year with you and together not only find light instead of dark, but seek out the deep beauty in the darkness itself. Grief and despair mean you love and you care. And that's beautiful.
Our first offering in this effort is a TED talk by Scottish playwright Murray Watts. In it, he speaks about the importance of building “ecologies of hope” and how cynicism is the opposite of hope, not despair, and that in this despair are gifts of beauty and hope to be found.
If you enjoyed this clip, you may also find value and resonance in his new book,
Anthem for Life: The Beauty and Wonder of Psalm 23.