YOU'RE ALLOWED TO IMAGINE SOMETHING BETTER
"What’s the worst that could happen?"
Many of us can answer that question immediately. Our minds don’t hesitate to create scenarios for all that could go wrong. And maybe this is because in one way or another many of us have already witnessed what felt like the worst-case scenario. We’ve had to deal with unimaginable loss…heartbreaking outcomes that we wouldn’t want anyone to have to live through. As a result of this, trying to have hope for the future becomes a burden.
There will be moments where we sit with the possibility of unwanted outcomes and there is grace for that. There is no shame if you have known this kind of heaviness in your life. And this is also true, when your heart is ready and open, there is also grace to ask other kinds of questions:
1 - What’s the best possible outcome?
2 - What would I do with my life today if I knew that everything was going to be okay?
3 - What if I ended up being surprised by the future in a good way? How would that make me feel?
If you’ve struggled with having hope for the future it may take a little time to answer these questions. And that's okay. You might not be able to lean into these kinds of questions every day, for every circumstance, all the time. But what matters is that when you are able to enter into them, you allow yourself to do so fully. What matters is that you give yourself permission to come forth at any moment with a brand new set of questions.
You’re allowed to think differently here.
You’re allowed to imagine something better.
You’re free to dream of the best-case scenarios for yourself, your family, your friends, and your community.
Of course, you can't control outcomes and there is no way to predict what other people will do in their lives, but it is possible to be loving without being controlling. To be hopeful without toxic positivity. To dream without ignoring reality.
And we can do all of this by choosing to breathe deep. By choosing to listen before we speak. By choosing to trust that we don’t always have to say or do things to make a difference.
When we put our hope in action it doesn’t mean that we have to always be doing something. Practicing hope doesn't mean forcing positivity into spaces of grief and loss. Oftentimes, hopeful action is learning how to ask better questions…not of others but of ourselves.
So with that in mind here are some questions we can each carry with us today:
1 - How can I be a hopeful presence in someone’s life without saying anything?
2 - How can I imagine a hopeful future in a way that considers other people's input, including people who are different from me?
3 - How can I dream of best-case scenarios that are empathetic and inclusive?
4 - How can I commit to slow, hopeful action? Dreaming and planning things that are built slowly (and maybe even quietly) over time?
5 - How can I do something good, kind, and hopeful that I won't be able to take the credit for?
By choosing to ask ourselves different questions, we can start to think of the present moment and the future in different ways. When we consider other people and we consider that we don’t always have to be the ones to take action immediately we can start to see that hope is strong enough to build slowly over time. Amidst all of the chaos, hope is strong enough to allow room for the best scenarios.
Word of the day: Collective (adj): "done by people acting as a group" (Merriam Webster)
Journal Prompt: Craft a plan for something good that you can do that you won't get to take credit for.
Affirmation: "I am daring to hope for best-case scenarios.”
More in this week's series called "Hope In Practice", only with a subscription in the Storyteller App.
Sincerely,
Morgan Harper Nichols
@thestorytellerco
@morganharpernichols
