Gaia Community

There is always Hope

Jill said Oct 10, 2006, 12:17 PM:

I've had some pretty dark hours. More than you know. The one thing I held onto was the idea that there was hope. Long after the fleeting feelings of hope dimmed, I held the idea like a seed and planted it when I hit the bottom.

There is always hope. Those seeds have a way of cracking open and sprouting when we most need them and the first signs are not so dramatic as the parting of the red sea. The first signs are the tiny stirring in the dust that signals the rising of a green shoot.

I recently did a prayer drawing for “things I have given up hope on”. I see the stirring of the dust and I know that the seed has taken hold. Green shoots are coming my way!

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Re: There is always Hope

Dee Dee said Oct 15, 2006, 9:04 PM:

I always have hope! In fact, I'm high on hope! But, I still feel like it will take 100 tomorrows to fix today! I feel so good talking to you here! There are so many things that I just can't share with others! I'm even afraid of my own shadow! I try so very hard not to let the past creep in to today! But, it's everywhere! Most days, I just want to give up! It wasn't too long ago, that every night before I went to bed, I actually prayed for death! I haven't really slept in months! I lay down, close my eyes, and sometimes only 10 minutes of sleep! I don't even remember my dreams anymore! What do you suppose that means? I can't figure it out! And, I'm losing hope more and more! These are the possessions I hold dear to keep me going, my 3 children and my education!

Re: There is always Hope

violetflame said Oct 16, 2006, 3:54 PM:

Dear Dee Dee,

The fact that you are here at Zaadz, a community of hope, and that you are part of the Sacred Walk pod, among many other things, exhibits the hope that is alive in you.
It may take all you have right now to share with us how hard these days are, but I applaud your strength to take your energy and to place in here in words so that we can offer our support and help us kindle your hope, which still is alive within you.

There is no greater gift than to receive hope. Allow yourself to open up to the hope that is held here for you. It is also hopeful that you are able to hold dear to your children and to your education. This is an act of hope, itself. To recognize the people and things that bring meaning and love into your life.

I send my prayers and cyber hugs to you and know that you willfind the strength within the days ahead to see feel the healing taking place in your life.

Allow yourself to dream of what you are longing to manifest in your life and believe that you will manifest your heart’s desires as time unfolds. Keep the faith sister, and may the long time sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the light guide your way on!

Blessed Be!

Elena

Re: There is always Hope

Nichole said Oct 17, 2006, 11:06 AM:

Hope is everywhere and in everything. Anything we believe can be seen, because we want to see it so badly. Seeing/Finding the silver lining in every situation and praising it makes life so much easier emotionally. Coping with a bad situation becomes effortless when you know that it's for the best.
There are certain situations in life that seem hopeless like our current state of political affairs. I have to really try hard to see that there are still people out there that wants what's best for the greater good. Zaadz helps me out ALOT!

Re: There is always Hope

saxman said Dec 13, 2006, 4:19 PM:

Dear DeeDee,

Your right there is always hope that tomorrow will bring better circumstances but often in our hope lies the dispare of disbelief. Just as you mentioned that you feel it will take 100 tomorrows to fix today shows your disbelief. Don't live by what your thoughts tell you life will be like because the brain only knows what it has experenced. It cannot fathom tomorrow and certainly not next week with any degree of knowing.

Come to know the you that lies within the thoughts telling you that there is hope and in this hope you won't have to wait those 100 days.. Your change can be immediately. But with this comes the responsibilty of action on our part. Such as in finding work or new work and getting rid of all the excuses we've made up to justify our failures. Before you can trust what is true you have to discover it . And that answer lies between your thoughts of dispair. Take care of keep moving forward, Gary

no, sadly sometimes we lose hope

SmokingBear said Jan 19, 2007, 2:08 AM:

and that is where I sit today. and I know I am in trouble.
For 48 years now, I have always been able to find solace in music.
Now? Even the music cannot reach me.
My faith in myself and in my world, and the world in general, has been shattered. My soul and spirit cry out for rest and there just isn’t any.
I know I should be grateful for a roof over my head and food in my stomach. I should be appreciative that I do have work. But, it’s just not reaching me.
I need to have hope. If not for me, for those closest to me. But, there are times when I just start crying and crying and crying.

Sadly, sometimes we lose hope.

Re: no, sadly sometimes we lose hope

Nicole said Jan 19, 2007, 4:09 AM:

dear bear, you are going through a very difficult and painful time, and at times when it's this dark, it's hard to imagine the sun will ever shine again… but it really does, and the deepest pain can create a cup within us to be filled with the greatest joy, when the time comes…

remember that you are wonderful, and that you are loved.

namaste,

nicole

Re: no, sadly sometimes we lose hope

Burt [no longer around] said Jan 21, 2007, 8:22 AM:

Dear SmokingBear:

I don’t know the particulars of your situation. I do know that at some point in their lives many men and women awake to an emptiness at the core of their being, an existential hole, if you will. They will try and fill this hole with any number of things: alcohol, drugs, food, promiscuity, material possessions, etc., but it can never be filled that way. Nor will the love of another person serve, which can be painful for those dear to us. The only thing that will help is to find and tap into the endless spring of Love that exists within all of us. It’s there; it always has been and always will be. I don’t know if this applies to you, Bear, but I heartily join with Nicole in urging you never to abandon hope and to take comfort knowing there are many who hold you in their hearts.

True story I heard in an interview at the National Holocaust Museum: each dawn the inmates at a concentration camp were called out to hear the commandant read the orders of the day. The interviewee always stood next to a short little man who repeatedly whispered the words, “Thank God…thank God…thank God.” One day our narrator could stand it no more and bitterly whispered to his fellow inmate out of the side of his mouth: “What do you mean, ‘Thank God?’ What do you have to thank God about?” The short man motioned with his head toward the commandant: “Thank God I’m not like him.” Both men managed to survive.

Look for even the tiniest crack in your sorrow, my friend. That’s light coming through it.

And then hope is restored!

Jill said Jan 21, 2007, 5:16 PM:

Smoking Bear - You already know what I have to say. One foot in the forward direction. Hope is held in the small moments of surrender.

Nicole, thank you for what you said. It is very true.

Burt….. I love the way that you offer things. This is the only path I know for finding your way out. To understand that there is no true separation. It is a matter of remembering connection to source.

Re: And then hope is restored!

Jill said Jan 22, 2007, 5:08 AM:

Scott,

I thought I would come back and add my thoughts. I loved so much what Burt and Nicole had to say. And…. none of this will come to a surprise for you…

I have come to honor those “bottoms” that we each hit. When it feels like there is no where to go. It usually means that we've run to the end of the trap we set up for ourselves and then we join the process of cracking open.

I've been listening to “The Power of Now” with Tolle. It reflects so much of what I've been looking at and talking about. Including the death of ego. That perception of who we are vs. the reality of who we are. He talks about the difference between Clock time and Psychological time. That idea of perceptions and stories that we tell ourselves which lead to suffering.

I think you are at the edge of a place where all things are possible. And this horrible feeling is simply the death of your hold on a false ego. And it simply happens one tiny minute at a time.

Re: There is always Hope

SmokingBear said Jan 22, 2007, 5:42 AM:

I've got Tolle's book….I think I need to break it back out.

Thank you all for your support and Jill for your inspiration and creating a place such as this. There is so much I need to learn and to do.

Today, I am facing some physical challenges. A bout of the gout has settled in my right ankle and I can hardly put any weight on it. Talk about ow.

I am hoping for hope……

thanks again, all.

Tolle's book

SmokingBear said Jan 22, 2007, 6:35 AM:

I just picked it up again, read thru the forward and such and got to his first chapter. I immediately put the book down and am now forgetting abouty it. It was at the exact point that I put it down years ago. First, not all of us wake up and find a pencil beautiful, while such an epiphany would be welcome, and in fact is paryed for, it was followed by a period of time which Tolle says he spent an extended period of time sitting on park benches in a blissful state.
Obviously, he had no one else he was responsible for. He dropped out of the things that cause most of us 99% of our trials and tribulations. No children, no mortgage/rent, no nothing. How did he eat?
I now understand why priest don’t marry or have families. Not only is it to leave them unencumbered to deal with others Spiritual issues, it is so that they are free to deal with their own dark nights of the soul.
It must be wonderful to drop out of society and not deal with bills and children needing new shoes.

Re: Tolle's book

Nicole said Jan 22, 2007, 7:27 AM:

it's interesting, i was just talking with someone about in the days before modern psychiatry, the rich used to go away to some spa for months or a year to recover from a breakdown… the poor didn't have this luxury but it is truly a gift to be unencumbered to have long stretches of solitude to heal and grow… and yes, i've come to understand that about being a celibate or a hermit, that it can be very fulfilling…

sorry to hear about the foot… :( hope it's better soon and that your spirits rise once more.

love,

nicole

Re: Tolle's book

Jill said Jan 22, 2007, 12:39 PM:

Scott,

that is how he found his answers. It doesn't invalidate the answers. Sometimes the heartbreak of loving a child can take you through the shoes and straight into insight and enlightenment.

Pick the book back up!!!! RIGHT NOW! lol