Why the Season of Hope Is Only Hopeful If You Make It So

Erika Petrelli
Erika Petrelli

Easy to Forget: Why the Season of Hope Is Only Hopeful If You Make It So

Photo Credit: "Hope", Jan Tik, https://www.flickr.com/photos/jantik/

Well!  ‘Tis the season, isn’t it? Bookended by gratitude within our Thanksgiving celebrations last week and the promise of new beginnings with our New Year’s Eve celebrations at the end of the month, this is the season for sharing joy and fellowship and abundance with our loved ones, our communities, and ourselves.  No matter your religious affiliation or lack thereof, no matter whether you enter this season with a fire in your fireplace or a swimsuit on the beach, this is a season ripe with hope. Hope for better times. Hope for better connections. Hope for a better us

It’s easy to forget that.

It’s easy to forget that in the race to be first in line for the must-have Black Friday sale.

It’s easy to forget that in the stress of figuring out how to afford the many items on the wish lists of your little ones.

It’s easy to forget that when listening to opposing points of view across the table.

It’s easy to forget that in the hustle and bustle of holiday events and to-dos.

It’s easy to forget that in the grief and anxiety that holiday season memories sometimes awake in us.

It’s easy to forget.

But I’m trying to remember that a season of hope is only hopeful if I help make it so.  You know?

We have a month left in 2016. How will you spend this month? There will be opportunities every day for you to either spread a feeling of hope—which to me is a feeling of abundance—or to spread a feeling of scarcity.   And whether you have much to give monetarily or not, we all have much to give. We can give our love, our time, our patience, our generosity, our cooking, our handwritten notes. And that’s how hope flourishes! Because hope says “I hear you” and “I see you” and “I love you” and “I’m here” and “It’s going to be okay.”

It is going to be okay. I’m hopeful in that.   

How will you spread hope today?

Wings & Whimsy Challenge: Illuminate

What specific things do you like to do during this season to
spread joy and hope to others? Tell me about it in the
comments below, or Tweet to @ErikaPetrelli1

Erika-Brand

Interested in having Erika’s blog come directly to your e-mail each Tuesday? Have comments to share?  E-mail her at erika@tlpnyc.com.   Find all her previous blog posts at www.tlpnyc.com/author/erika

 

 

“Easy to Forget: Why the Season of Hope Is Only Hopeful If You Make It So”, The Leadership Program, 2016

 

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Erika Petrelli

By Erika Petrelli

Erika Petrelli is the Senior Vice President of Leadership Development (and self-declared Minister of Mischief) for The Leadership Program, a New York City-based organization. With a Masters degree in Secondary Education, Erika has been in the field of teaching and training for decades, and has been with The Leadership Program since 1999. There she has the opportunity to nurture the individual leadership spirit in both students and adults across the country, through training, coaching, keynotes, and writing. The legacy Erika strives daily to create is to be the runway upon which others take flight. If you enjoy these blogs, you should check out her interactive journal, On Wings & Whimsy: Finding the Extraordinary Within the Ordinary, now available for sale on Amazon. While her work takes her all around the country, Erika calls Indiana home.