Member-only story
How Do You Build Hope?
I turn to the night sky when I need help being hopeful
Whether I die instantly in a supernova or perish from a slow exhaustion of all of my fuel, I hope that, like the stars, everything that is most precious inside of me will illuminate the darkest moments of my descendants’ lives as they fix their course and navigate uncharted waters.
Of all the things we can least afford to have a scarcity of in our world right now, hope is at the top of the list. There has never been a revolution, scientific breakthrough, or solution to a society-threatening problem discovered without hope.
Hope is a unique virtue that requires you to live and work in the present to build a better future, while understanding all of the problems you face in the present moment. Hope is something you must cultivate and maintain. While some of us are more predisposed to holding onto hope, without work, hope will either dissipate or become corrupted into a sense of complacency.
How do you build hope?
Hope is made of three ingredients: gratitude, imagination, and wonder. When I start to feel my natural cynicism begin to grow, I know I must counter that by recharging my sense of gratitude, imagination, and wonder.
