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?
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