Sylvanna Devlin

From “Game Over”.

You don’t find hope, get a happy, glowing, perfect life, and move on with your existence blissfully unaware of the suffering of others.

That’s not hope, that’s greed. That’s emptiness. And it will leave you in pain.

You can’t find it in greeting cards, or sound bites from gurus. The truth runs much deeper.

You can’t learn it from prayer or meditation alone. Nor can you near its touch without putting some thought to it.

And maybe some unexpected suffering to set you free if your privilege is preventing you. Time to open your eyes.

For some, that can be painful enough.

Hope may start as a belief that there is a better way.

But Hope is not something you have; it is something you work for.

You don’t ever grasp your fingers round its heart and never lose sight of such a wonderful thing.

No. You must continuously move towards it. And treasure it when you touch it most closely.

It is something you climb your way back towards when you’ve lost sight of its light.

You will slip, you will fall, you will stumble. But Hope is the strength to get up again and keep trying.

You will never ease an empty soul without it, but it is something you can ignite in another.

That mere first step is when hope sparks, and you let it move you no matter how small the distance.

It builds as you keep going. And it continues to fill you till you are lifted up enough to gain it more easily.

It’s not a race, don’t rush it, open your heart a little at a time if you must.

Till the window falls back and the swift breeze of better possibilities flitters through your house.

But hope is also in what you do when you must shutter the door and hurry your neighbors in against oppression.

It is in protest and civil disobedience.

It is in the desire to change and the actions to follow through.

It is in asylum seekers and immigrants, the starving and the poor.

It is in the misguided and mislead.

It is in the young and naive, and the steadfast but grizzly.

It is in lawmakers who want to make an honest tangible difference.

And it is in voters who get them elected.

No riches will ever be enough to purchase it.

But share your wealth with the suffering, and the hope you spread will save you.

Hope is not a miserly game.

It is meant to be shared, given freely to those around you.

Whether they’re filled by it, or ache for it.

And should you be overwhelmed? If Hope Dies?

Change.

And get it back again.

Hope will never turn you away.

It will look different now. But so will you.

Learn from this new form and get better at reaching for it.

Hope is sometimes what you don’t expect.

And sometimes when Hope pulls on you there’s resistance.

You didn’t think this was what you need.

But Hope is what saves you.

And if I can convince you to do one thing.

Start building your hope. Because we need all of us to have it.

We need to believe our problems are fixable

And if we all gripped on to hope for dear life?

We would.

Hope is not perfect peace. Not at all.

It is the will to keep fighting. Even if all you can offer is a candle in the dark