Thoughts from Shambhala Sun

I periodically pick up this magazine from IY... and often I find something in it that seems to resonate. If you'll indulge me, this is what I've been thinking about for the last few days, an article titled "The place beyond hope and fear" by Margaret Wheatley, Ed.D.:

Hope is not related to accomplishments. It is, quite simply, a dimension of being human. To feel hope, we don't have to accomplish anything. Hope is always right there, in our very being, our human spirits, our fundamental human goodness.

If we know that we are hope, it becomes much easier to stop being blinded or seduced by hopeful prospects. Instead of grasping onto activities that we want so desperately to succeed, we can see clearly and simply what to do. Grounded only in who we are, we discover those actions that feel right, rather than those that might or might not be effective. We may not succeed in changing things, but we choose to act from the clarity that this is right action for us. People who endure and persevere for their cause describe clarity as a force arising within them that compels them to act. They express this by saying, "I couldn't not do it."

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It isn't outcomes that matter. It's people, our relationships, that give meaning to our struggles. If we free ourselves from hope and fear, from having to succeed, we discover that it becomes easier to love...We realise that we are truly in this together, and that's all that matters.