The Only Way Things Ever Get Better
It is hard to be hopeful right now given the terrible times we are currently living in and how much suffering there is. But the only way things ever get better is by remaining hopeful.
Here are a couple of reflections from Henri Nouwen I want to share to help spread hope. The only other thing I will add is remember to take care of yourself and be safe!
Vision Of The Future
From: Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
Often it is the dark forest that makes us speak about the open field. Frequently prison makes us think about freedom, hunger helps us to appreciate food, and war gives us words for peace. Not seldom are our visions of the future born out of the sufferings of the present and our hope for others out of our own despair. Only few “happy endings” make us happy, but often someone's careful and honest articulation of the ambiguities, uncertainties and painful conditions of life gives us new hope. The paradox is indeed that new life is born out of the pains of the old.”
The Courage to Fully See
From: Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
Maybe, for the time being, we have to accept the many fluctuations between knowing and not knowing, seeing and not seeing, feeling and not feeling, between days in which the whole world seems like a rose garden and days in which our hearts seem tied to a millstone, between moments of ecstatic joy and moments of gloomy depression, between the humble confession that the newspaper holds more than our souls can bear and the realization that it is only through facing up to the reality of our world that we can grow into our own responsibility. Maybe we have to be tolerant toward our own avoidances and denial in the conviction that we cannot force ourselves to face what we are not ready to respond to, and in the hope that in one future day we will have the courage and strength to open our eyes fully and see without being destroyed. All this might be the case, as long as we remember that there is no hope in denial or avoidance, neither for ourselves, nor for anyone else, and that new life can only be born out of the seed planted in crushed soil.
