I’ve been writing a lot about hope, joy, and wonder because of my work at Jones Valley Teaching Farm. Perhaps those words are harder to hear right now, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use them. When I write them down for social media posts or staff meetings, I almost feel embarrassed. Will people think I’m putting my head in the sand not realizing all that we are facing? Will people think I’m glossing over or even worse ignoring the challenges facing our world?

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a new series on “On Being” by my long-time favorite, Krista Tippett. Its title? The Hope Portal. Just as she often does, she gave words and meaning to the very things I’ve been struggling to say out loud. Or, maybe I’ve been too afraid to say out loud. What kind of world are we living in if we can’t ponder the truth and necessity of hope? What kind of complicity am I upholding by agreeing to be silenced?

I’d argue that there’s space for all of us — the deeply cynical, the seekers, the doubters, the dreamers, and the hopeful! Krista says about hope: “I’m talking about hope as an orientation really more than a virtue, a way of seeing and moving through the world. And it is a choice. In the face of profound, reasonable despair, it is a calling, it is a practice, a muscle. And, like any muscle, it can be flexed and strengthened.”

Having hope doesn’t mean that we ignore the world as it is. In fact, I’d argue that choosing hope is an act of resistance. Krista reminded us of Representative John Lewis’s incredible offering: “I discovered that you have to have this sense of faith that what you’re moving toward is already done.” She interprets that to mean, “The way he talked about how he lived in and through and beyond a world that he had a hand in utterly changing was “to live as if.” He said, You imagine the world you want to inhabit, you imagine the beloved community that you want to create and be part of, and you live as if that is the reality. And you just have to walk into making it more visible and more true for everyone else.”

The work we do at Jones Valley Teaching Farm in Birmingham, Alabama requires a lot of hope on multiple levels: that the actual seeds we plant will take root and grow, the weather cooperates long enough for a bountiful harvest, and that the hard work we do cultivating our soil will sustain the challenges that are bound to come our way. Then there’s the hope that the skills learned through the powerful act of growing, cooking, and sharing food will change the way we value each other, our land, and our communities. We hope that the impact we make on young people during field trips, camps, and classes will spark their own hope, wonder, and joy and inspire them to move to action. All of this is wrapped up in hope, but I’d also argue a deep belief that all of this will come true just like the ‘beloved community’ Representative John Lewis talked about.

Krista also offers, “That nothing new has ever entered this world without someone or someones who first imagined a possibility others couldn’t yet see or believe in, and then brought realities into being that most of us can later not imagine the world without. Again, this is a truth that has small manifestations and vast manifestations, individual and communal. And this is a young century in which we have a world to remake, all of our disciplines, all of our communities. And it is in this context that I see a revitalized, chosen, practiced, applied hope — individual and communal — as urgent and necessary towards that possibility of a different world.”

Now is not the time to erase “hope” from our vocabulary. In fact, I’d argue we move away from the ‘wishing’ and focus on the ‘believing.’ I think about all of the communities before us that used hope as an anchor — a tool — a direct action. I believe we are facing our own moment — and opportunity — to face fear with hope. The kind of hope that doesn’t allow others to define it. The kind of hope that has courage wrapped all around it. The kind of hope that refuses to accept what is and offers what the world can and should be.

If you want to follow along with The Hope Portal, here is the link: https://onbeing.org/programs/krista-tippett-hope-portal-episode-1/

-A