An osprey landed on my kitchen window ledge, less than two feet from my face. We looked at each other for at least a minute before s/he flew off to a tree in our neighbor’s back yard. It felt like a miracle!
We certainly need miracles. We also need hope.
I don’t need to tell you about all the people needing miracles – those succumbing to an even more contagious form of Covid-19; those whose stimulus checks are too little and too late; last year’s college graduates who still can’t find jobs (let alone the class of ’11).
And these are persons fortunate enough to live in “developed” countries. Think of how hopeless the more than eighty million refugees worldwide must feel!
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, “Totally without hope one cannot live. To live without hope is to cease to live. Hell is hopelessness. It is no accident that above the entrance to Dante's hell is the inscription: ‘Leave behind all hope, you who enter here.’”
So, let us give way to Hope! Here are some of the miracles, big and small, I hope for in 2011:
· That we’ll all be vaccinated by summer.
· Our favorite restaurant won’t have to close before then.
· That our country will not go back to normal -- that we’ll create a more just and equitable society.
· That millions of new green jobs will be created to combat global warming.
What are you hopeful for in 2021? Does listing your hopes make you less anxious about the dark months in front of us as the pandemic rages and recession looms?
My osprey’s visit was surely a sign of hope.