On Hope -
Questions for Reflection:
What gives me hope when things look hopeless?
Who can I count on in times of adversity?
What am I thankful for right now?
A VIRTUES MOMENT: HOPE
"Hope is looking to the future with trust and faith. It is optimism in the face of adversity. Without hope, we lose our will to live fully. Hope gives us the courage to keep moving forward. It can be elusive when we have suffered often, yet it is the light that can redeem our dreams. With hope, we know we are not alone. There is always help when we are willing to ask. There are gifts to be gleaned from all that happens. With hope, we find the confidence to try and try again. I am thankful for the gift of Hope. It is the light of my life."
-excerpted with permission from Virtues Reflection Cards by Linda Kavelin Popov. http://virtuestraining.com/24_products
My first thought in writing this month about Hope, was the economy and its effects on us. It is hard to be hopeful when so many around us are losing their homes, their jobs, their savings. The antidote to hopelessness and fear is gratitude. When I remember all the things I am grateful for, I can be in a place of hope and gratitude, instead of fear and hopelessness.
Then I received a newsletter from the Mona Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting educational initiatives and raising the status of women and girls around the world. A visit to the Barli Institute in India demonstrates the power of Hope, in an area that most would see as hopeless. In Indore province, a visitor describes breaktaking poverty, dust, and suffocating pollution, where mothers must leave their listless, tiny, helpless infants on top of broken, wooden carts, to sell a few bananas to survive another day. When even the very old with thin skin on their fragile bones pull a cart to make a few coins each day.
In the midst of this poverty, the Barli Institute educates the poorest women from the surrounding villages, most of whom are illiterate, voiceless and hopeless. After 6 months, all go back to their villages as health workers, having learned to read and write, how to sew and batik, how to sow the land with sustainable practices and how to preserve their environment. They leave as empowered women, proud, and determined to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others.
Two people, the McGilligans, initially brought hope to this poor region by founding Barli Institute, where women are transformed, one person at a time, to become powerful agents of change in service to the social and economic development of their own communities. Hope is indeed, optimism in the face of adversity. It is the light in our lives.
To read more of this inspiring story about the Mona Foundation go to http://monafoundation.org/newsletters/spring09.pdf
Questions for Reflection:
What gives me hope when things look hopeless?
Who can I count on in times of adversity?
What am I thankful for right now?
VIRTUES IN THE NEWS
To listen to Betsy's radio interview about virtues in schools, go to the podcast for Soul of Seattle for 3/8/09- http://www.am1090seattle.com/pages/3610803.php
We were also featured in the Bellevue Reporter last month: "Bellevue Students Learn to Use Virtues" http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/bel/community/39916073.html
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