Where Hope is Found
Hope is what makes the future for all of us. It is the best gift we can give to an old world in the new year.
- Eugene Kennedy
January ushers in a new year that looks more bleak than bright for Zamboanga. With the unexpected spate of power outages, the gloomy weather that hangs over the city like a dark cloud, and more disturbingly, the alarming accounts of kidnappings that seem to spare no one – rich, poor, young, old, the city definitely seems off to a dreadful start. The prospects are dismal and we can’t help but vacillate between feelings of anger and helplessness especially since this run of “bad luck” shows no sign of letting-up anytime soon. (And we haven’t even considered the economic crisis that has been gripping the country, even the world, since last year.)
When the start of the new year fills us with more dread than optimism, when joy comes in trickles and peace appears to be an elusive dream, how and where can we find hope? Do we have to shake it down from the heavens where most of us mistakenly believe it resides? Do we find it only in the miracles that occasionally jolt us from our daily grind making us believe, even just for a moment, that anything is possible? But if these are the only places where hope dwells, then our encounters with it would be few and far between. And for hope to be what it is, it must be nearer and more accessible than we have imagined it to be.
When do we experience hope? Hope surfaces when we muster the courage to face our reality, no matter how terrifying and daunting it may be. It manifests itself when we continue to believe in the goodness – that spark of the Divine- that is inherent in each of us no matter how hidden from sight it may be for now. It announces itself when we make an investment into the world, despite the frightening mask it wears, rather than withdraw from it. It is born when we hold fast to what we share in common instead of our differences and when our concern expands to include the wellbeing of those around us and not just ourselves or our interests. It comes to stay when we refuse to barter our dreams, or to give our lives away as ransom for the fears that hold us hostage. For like love or charity or peace, hope is found inside us. It dwells in our bruised hearts and battered souls and springs forth when we sincerely reach out to respond to each other’s needs.
This is the hope Zamboanga needs in these very trying times when the city’s peace, development and progress are threatened by lawless elements who sow fear, ruin lives and make a profit in the process: hope that is made tangible as we show a united front and brave together this predicament that has befallen our city; hope that is made real as we call out for collective action instead of cringing in cowardice and allowing our city to fall to her knees in defeat and despair. If we can find a way to stand our ground amidst a situation that threatens to snuff out our very lives and our city’s very soul, then we can find hope. And where hope is found, surely the answers to the challenges that threaten to overwhelm us cannot be far behind.