Day 1: What Does It Mean to Have Hope?

Is hope a relevant concept in 2024? Can you have hope and feel despair at the same time? How do we find hope in this troubling time?

Dear Friends,

As we head into 2025 and the uncertain future the U.S. election wrought, I’ve once again been reflecting on hope. Hope has always been a part of who I am. I hang on to hope as if it’s a reassuring pilot light that burns steady and small in the background as it awaits the moment it’s called upon to ignite a larger flame. Hope is always with me—even if I’m afraid the propane tank that fuels the light is running dry. As Emily Dickinson says about hope, “…it sings the tune without the words and never stops at all…”¹

But I know that some of you feel like you’ve lost hope over this past month. As you look to the future, all you can see is misery and despair. You’re tired, scared, angry, shocked, dismayed, disillusioned, and, dare I say, feeling helpless and hopeless. I don’t blame you. I’m struggling with the same feelings and have been asking the same questions. You are not alone.

So how do we find the strength to continue our work for justice, equity, and compassion? How do we engage in using our gifts and talents in protecting the vulnerable and ensuring that all people are treated with dignity and respect? How do we hold on to hope?

In 2020, I lost a dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Hope Johnson. For those of you who knew Hope, you know that she lived her name. She was all about teaching others to embrace a hope-filled world.

The Rev. Dr. Hope Johnson at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama

To mark her first birthday after her passing, the organization I work for and co-founded with Hope, her twin sister Janice Marie Johnson, and the Rev. Dr. Gordon and Judy Gibson, the Living Legacy Project, started the Rev. Dr. Hope Johnson Legacy Fund. At the same time, we celebrated Hope’s life by posting “Thirty Days of Hope”—a series of quotations and reflections to encourage people to consider the role of hope in their lives. It was needed then as we recovered from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s needed now as we prepare for what comes our way in 2025 and beyond. It’s time, therefore, to revive that project and update it for this time.

Over the next thirty days, I would like to engage you in a conversation about hope, hope’s twin cousins, resilience and renewal, and maybe a little commitment thrown in for good measure. How do we work to change the world in the face of so much adversity? How do we renew our spirits and heal ourselves and each other, so we have the energy to put ourselves where we’re most needed? How do we know where we’re most needed?

To follow along with the series, click Next at the bottom of each day’s post.

This experiment in hope won't work without your participation. During this iteration of “Thirty Days of Hope,” I invite you to share your thoughts, resources, ideas, images, songs, stories, poetry, and artwork with the Annette’s Wanderings community. I would like to hear whatever it is that gives you hope. It’s my hope (see what I did there?) that you’ll spend this month reflecting with me on the role of hope in our lives as we prepare ourselves for the hard work ahead of us in the United States and around the globe. Will you join me?

As you begin this journey, remember, you don’t have to do it all. Let me say again, “You are not alone!” All you have to do is what you can do, and nothing more. We’ll do the rest. The only caveat is that, in the words of Michelle Obama, you must “do something!”

​I hope you'll start doing something by joining the conversation! Watch for a way to engage each day!

Today’s Reflection

What does it mean to you to have hope (whether or not you’re feeling it at this particular moment)? Please share your responses in words, images, art, poetry, or any other way you'd like.

With hope in my heart,

Annette

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1. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314