LET'S TALK ABOUT . . .


                                                 "LIVING IT FORWARD IN HOPE"


So many are talking about how to view and move into the future with a deeply held sense of hope.  This is especially true of today's youth.  They are unsure about the world and the future they are inheriting from previous generations. This uncertainty generates anxiety, hopelessness, shifts in ideology and philosophies about how to pragmatically live out their day to day lives.

They perceive the world is out of control on so many levels.  Civilly, nations are facing huge issues in terms of dealing with the sociological fallout of social media, medical and mental health, the abuse of power and aggression, shifting financial trends and market projections, immigration issues, shifting class structures.  An example, medically, is the Ebola crisis in Africa.

On the world stage, we are dealing with nations and populations in crisis due to famine, at war over resources and living under the threat of usurped national boundaries.  The rise of terrorism with all its various expressions around the world, especially ISIS, are unnerving.  Narcissism has given way to anarchy in some situations and sectors of the world as a political philosophy rather than a recognized pathology. 

Climate change with all the natural disasters of the past year: heat waves and droughts, floods, volcanos, earthquakes, water spouts and tornados, hurricanes, landslides and mudslides, huge sink holes are popping up, or maybe I should say "bottoming out" all over.  Secondarily to all of this, are the crop failures, the shrinking lakes and reservoirs where drought has occurred, the swelling lakes and rivers where unprecedented rainfall has been experienced.  As well, there are dead fish washing on shore, dead birds falling from the sky, the absence of bees, and the increased number of locusts and grasshoppers in other parts of the world.

There is so much going on! We have immediate access to any or all of it through social media. It begs some kind of a response.  How do we responsibly live out our lives as world citizens.  Many are choosing to not even "be in the know."  It is too stressful.  Others feel like they have to know in order to be prepared if any of it comes knocking on their door.  Still others throw up their hands, shake their heads and walk away, feeling impotent to effect any change.  What can we do?  Can we do anything to make a difference in our worlds on a day to day basis?

I think we need to be "realistically hopeful." Sound like an oxymoron?  It's not!  So many think hope is like wishful thinking, "I hope that happens."  There are more than one kind of hope.  There are existential hopes that no one can take away from you if you are grounded in them.

In my last blog I distinguished between a temporary, "pay it forward" deed of kindness and a "play it forward" commitment based on living out one's ruling passion.  I wonder what difference it would make in our worlds this week if we participated in living it forward by telling at least one other person the reason for our hope, temporary or existential.

Until next time . . . this is, Just Janice!