“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
By Emily Dickinson
To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that
human history is not only of cruelty,
but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.
If we remember those times and places
where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act.
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
Let me go where’er I will
I hear a sky-born music still:
It sounds from all things old,
It sounds from all things young,
From all that’s fair, from all that’s foul,
Peals out a cheerful song.
It is not only in the rose,
It is not only in the bird,
Not only where the rainbow glows,
Nor in the song of woman heard,
But in the darkest, meanest things
There alway, alway something sings.
‘Tis not in the high stars alone,
Nor in the cups of budding flowers,
Nor in the redbreast’s mellow tone,
Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
But in the mud and scum of things
There alway, alway something sings.
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
‘I saw the Lord before me at all times;
he is near me, and I will not be troubled.
26 And so I am filled with gladness, and my words are full of joy.
And I, mortal though I am, will rest assured in hope, …
Acts 2:25b-26 Good News Translation
Of course you’ll encounter trouble.
But behold a God of power who can take any evil
and turn it into a door of hope.
Catherine Marshall