There is Hope

• “This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.” –Maya Angelou.
• “We need hope like we need air.” –Brene Brown.
• “It’s important to say what hope is not: it is not the belief that everything was, is, or will be fine.” –Rebecca Solnit.
• The hope we need isn’t false hope, like the hope of escaping our own mortality, or the hope of avoiding suffering. Nor is it about some kind of magic pill that will save us from dementia.
• But this kind of hope stems from the fact that life is fluid and changing all the time, that each moment is what is real, and what happens next isn’t written in stone.
• This hope is about possibility.
• “Hope is the belief that your future can be brighter and better than your past and that you actually have a role to play in making it better.” –Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman.
• Learning to pay attention to and be mindful of our brain function, and beginning to understand how the choices affecting brain health that we are making in our daily lives could significantly impact how we experience our later years, can foster empowerment and agency. These hopeful qualities gradually spring from this awareness and knowledge.
• Preserving the health of our brains is how we survive and thrive. Hope is how we are inspired and energized to do this work.
• “Hope is a passion for the possible.” –Søren Kierkegaard.
• “The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.” –Barbara Kingsolver.
• This kind of hope is powered (first and most important) by self-kindness as a life practice, the most essential part of self-care. The hard work of being sweet to ourselves, again and again and again, until it becomes a habit. Finding and becoming more aware of the soft vulnerable parts of ourselves, and accepting our full true selves in all our imperfection: our heartbreaking losses and disappointments, our mortality, our boredom, our pettiness, our weaknesses, our strengths, our joys.
• “…this revolutionary act of treating ourselves tenderly can begin to undo the aversive messages of a lifetime.” –Tara Brach.
• We are enough. And we are precious. And our brains are wondrous.
• “We are not helpless and there is nothing wrong with us except the strange belief that we are helpless and there’s something wrong with us. All we need to do… is to stop letting that belief paralyze our minds, hearts, and souls.” –Donella Meadows.
• I heard a joke many years ago comparing a woman and man each looking in a mirror and judging their respective appearances. She found fault with every possible facet of hers. He had a three-hair combover and said: “Whoa, those three hairs are looking good!” At the time I laughed about the vanity in the man. More recently, I found my perception had flipped and I appreciated his self-regard more than the harsh self-criticism in the woman. I appreciated the wisdom of the gratefulness and love in his attitude. Self-belief is potent.
• “Whether you believe you can or not, you’re right.” –Henry Ford.