taking time: friends and food

I’ve been holding onto a thought around hope since this past fall when, alongside my community, I harvested the summer’s offering from our community garden. Each year, it is something that I look forward to. Some harvest the remainder of the vegetables, while others work in the kitchen, preparing soup and pie for a huge harvest feast that will take place the following evening. It’s a day of celebrating creation, enjoying good company, and being thankful for abundant provision, which we will then share with 80 more people from the neighbourhood the following evening.

There was a moment that stuck out to me this particular year.

I was out in the garden with some friends,  a mix of adults and children.

Two little boys from our community were there, delighting in the carrots they were digging up and cleaning. To me, it was a picture of the future. Sometimes I feel like we can busy ourselves with conveniences, so that we can live a busier life. In doing so, I fear that we will forget about, or loose connection with things that nurture and bring life.

Relationships and gardens. They both take time and for them to work well, don’t fit well under what is ‘convenient’ – at least not healthy gardens and relationships. I love the picture the boys working in the garden, seeing the adults around them make time and space for growing food and friendships. To me, those are some of the building blocks for a healthy and hopeful future.

What are little glimpses that you see in your day to to day that give you hope for tomorrow?

shed your shy

Chanda Cooper, Singer/Songwriter from Edmonton, sent us the lyrics to the title song from her most recent album, “Shed Your Shy.” We encourage you to also listen to her song, on her MySpace. Enjoy this piece of art, and thank you, Chanda, for sharing.

Does this help you think about what hope is? Please share your comments.

Shed your Shy

Here I sit
Why am I so rigid
I collapsed into your arms

Here I sit
Why am I so rigid
But now I’m unable to rest

I am holding onto fear
Why am I so scared
Letting go of all the lies
Feels like dying

Here I sit
Why am I so timid
Why so shy, My child
Cuz I won’t parade you then leave you alone

You are holding onto fear
Instead hold my hand
Press your nose against mine
And look into my eyes
But everyone needs space
Don’t they? Don’t you?
I’m just afraid I’ll cling too hard
And you’ll leave me

You are holding onto lies
Instead hold my hand
Press your nose against mine
And look into my eyes
Intimate is intimate
I don’t need space
So why so shy my child

Press your cheek against mine
And smell my skin
I am real… and I won’t parade you

Shed your shy, Shed your shy
My child, my child
Shed the lies, shed your shy my child
-Chanda Cooper (Lyrics to “Shed Your Shy” from latest album released April 2010)

the hope of future generations

A photo came in from the United Kingdom today. Thanks, Dan, for your contribution. You can read the story behind the picture in the gallery.

We would love to see more photos, exploring hope from your life. We’ll have it up on the blog within 24 hours. Tell your friends, lets see how many pictures of hope we can get!

 

the first photo!

We received our first photo submission for A Hope Story today,(thanks, Nancy!). You can check it out in the gallery, and be sure to read the story associated with the picture. After you have a look, leave us a comment and let us know what your response is. And don’t stop there – why not send in a photo of your own, sharing story of hope from your own community.

i’m happy not to be an ant

I am in Australia right now, helping with a course called the “Faith & the Arts Summer School” that Fusion hosts each January. The hope is to do this course in Canada. As part of the preparations, I have been working on a journal, which the participants will use throughout the week. I’ve been on my own creative journey of learning how to use InDesign. I think I have stirred the latent graphic designer in me – I want to learn more!

I wanted to share a quote from the journal with you, from Madeleine L’Engle (Author of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’).

“Human beings are the only creatures that are allowed to fail. If an ant fails, it’s dead. But we are allowed to learn from our mistakes and failures.

And that’s how I learn; by falling flat on my face and picking myself up and starting all over again. If I am not free to fail, I will never start another book, I’ll lever start a new thing”.

How does that help you think about hope? For me, there is something about being in a place where it’s okay to be always growing, learning, moving beyond what we see and understand. That our weaknesses and failures are not things that get in the way, but invite more growth, understanding and life.

What are your thoughts?

And remember… we’d love for your to send in a photograph for our online gallery, as well as for our arts exhibition later on this spring. Hope to hear from you soon!

- Heather

launched and ready to go

As we have been preparing for A Hope Story, I have been reflecting a little bit about what communication is. How two people, in a conversation, are coming from two totally different worlds. For each person, words can easily have different meaning, conjure up emotion different to each other. I have heard it said that communication is not what I say, but what you hear – what goes off in the heart of another.

A Hope Story is a conversation around the question ‘what is hope?’, and chance to practice the thought that communication isn’t what I say, but what goes off in the heart of another person.

I welcome your submissions and your thoughts to this project, trusting that as we all share together, we will all go on a journey of discovery around the significance of hope.

Let me also encourage you – put down what you know and understand. Lay aside the lens that you look through, and take up the lens of another. How might you communicate what you understand hope to be to them?

Go on, grab your camera and go for a walk around your neighbourhood. What does hope look like where you live? Take a picture and submit it to A Hope Story, let it be a gift to all of us who are on the journey with you.

a hope story launch party

Mark Monday, December 6th on your calendar! That evening we will officially launch the ‘A Hope Story’ blog, and start welcoming in photo submissions of what hope looks like in your community or culture.

If you live in Richmond, BC, you are welcome to join for an evening of art, good music, light refreshments, and celebration as we post the *first* official blog for ‘A Hope Story’!

We’ll be gathering at World Harvest Church located at 5751 Cedarbridge Way, 7:00 on November 29th.

For a map of the venue click here.

To RSVP, please email us

we’re just getting started!

Welcome to A Hope Story. Over the next year we will be inviting people all over the world to share what hope looks like in their city, culture, community – in their life. We’re still getting the project started, and this blog is part of it. Please come back and visit in November or subscribe now if you would like to be notified for when the blog officially is launched.

Until that happens though, here are a couple of quotes about hope.

~ Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible. ~ Annonymous

~ The very least you can do in your life is to 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 Kingslover

~ Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. ~ Martin Luther

Looking forward to exploring hope with you!