Hope is a key word in the work of Our Place Society

鈥楬ope鈥� is a key word in the work of Our Place Society Every day I encounter some remarkable people. In almost seven years at Our Place Society, I have heard countless stories of hardship, deprivation, abuse, longing, hope and joy. I am continually surprised, moved and inspired by the resilience and hopefulness of people who have often experienced the worst the world has to offer.

Hope is a primary word in the Christian lexicon. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, ranks hope in the top three virtues, between faith and love. At Our Place, hope figures prominently in our vision: Hope and Belonging.听

Author Joanna Macy says hope can have two meanings. The first involves hopefulness, where our preferred outcome seems reasonably likely. Hopefulness of this sort can seem unrealistic when we are in the midst of personal or family crises or contemplating the effects of local and global inequity, war, violence, or the wholesale degradation of the biosphere. But there is another kind of hope, centred less on reasonably expected outcomes and more on deep longing. Macy describes it as 鈥溾€nowing what we hope听forand what we鈥檇 like, or love, to take place.鈥� (Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone,听Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We鈥檙e in without Going Crazy, 2012)

Active Hope is a practice鈥� something we听诲辞听rather than听have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and involves three key steps. First, taking a clear view of reality; second, identifying what we hope for, the direction we鈥檇 like things to move or the values we鈥檇 like to see expressed; and third, taking steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction.鈥� Active Hope doesn鈥檛 require optimism, we can apply it even where we feel hopeless. The guiding impetus is intention.

Today we and our world are in desperate need of active hope. But for most of us to transition from hopefulness to a practice of active hope, we need to buildresilience. We need to know or remember what we鈥檙e longing for, what we love, and what it is that we want to take place.听

Joanna Macy calls this building of resilience, especially through 鈥榬emembering together old sources of joy鈥櫶�bolstering our cultural immune system.听One of the ways we do this in our work in the downtown core is through weekly outings in nature. Often as soon as we set out people begin to relax and get in touch with their true selves. New (and old) stories emerge as people remember who they are, what they love or have loved, and what they would love to recapture in their lives.听听Nature is a touchstone for deep reconnection. So are culture, language, tradition, and spirituality. Gathering with friends and family; eating, drinking, celebrating, creating art, music, and poetry, remembering old stories and making new ones bolsters our cultural immune systems for the transformations we want to live out.听

The practice of active hope involves all of us. We all have healing and justice-making work to do 鈥� in our own lives and in the world. Speaking truth to power,听reconnecting to our radical interdependence with creation and one another, creating beloved community. To be transformed for and by this endeavour, we need opportunities to discover or recover the sources of our deepest longing, to remember who we are, what we love and what we鈥檙e longing for. Armed with intention, grounded in community, fully connected to our most intimate desires and values, we will be inspired to take the steps to move ourselves and our world in the direction of active hope. It is this kind of hope that starts our journey.听

Hope鈥� is a key word in the work of Our Place Society Rev. Julianne Kasmer is part of the Spiritual Care Team at Our Place Society.