Blooming Opportunity
Hope Spring Eternal
The saying, hope springs eternal, is from Alexander Pope’s (1688-1744) poem, Essay on Man. The full poem communicates Pope’s view that while people are naturally uneasy, unsure, and uncertain, hope appears in the most unlikely of places, rising unexpectedly like a spring rising up from the earth in surprising locations. Great rivers often begin humbly as a modest spring, gurgling to the surface of the land, and beginning their flowing journey to the sea. Like the delicate maple blossoms captured above, my focus in this blog post offers a different view of the word spring. Living in Minnesota, our winter, the season where much of my world is frozen beneath a sparkling blanket of white, spring brings the great thaw. Ice becomes water. Solid gives way to flow. And out of this flow state emerge the signs of the blooming of new life - buds, shoots, and sprouts, in all shapes, sizes, and colors, each representing the blooming of new opportunities for the various expression of life’s possibilities.
So, whether you relate more to spring as water bubbling up from unexpectedly from underground or spring as the annual season of renewal of new possibilities, the definitions share a common message: when life has been harsh and disappointing, or when dreams have failed to materialize, those are the very moments when it can be most important to find hope. In my work with clients, hope is not the same as putting on rose-colored glasses or engaging in self-delusion. Hope does not involve adopting a naïve wish that you’ll be rescued from whatever suffering you are experiencing.
Instead, hope involves relying on the very uncertainty and lack of clarity about what lies ahead that may be contributing to your current discomfort and unease. Each spring brings renewed hope that what was good in the past can bloom again, and that what was challenging can express itself in this spring in new ways that reflect nature’s inherent resilience.
Lessons on Hope from Nature
In my work with clients, I find instilling hope is a core feature of the growth and change process they seek. The essence of hope we cultivate involves several key elements, all of which reflect lessons I’ve learned from the days and nights I’ve spent in nature.
Hope relies on doubt, but still trusting in solutions that rest in the fertile ground of what is yet to be discovered.
Hope resides in the emergent potential that exists within each of us. We possess an incalculable capacity to reorganize, rebuild, and reboot old habits to form new ways of responding to life.
Hope represents the bold assertion that what is already known pales in comparison to what is yet to be discovered. In short, hope reflects nature’s truth that life is always looking to the future.
Finally, the growth and change process my clients seek is helped when they learn to practice the skill of patience. The following quotes from two of history’s great philosophers captures the importance of living with patience, even in the presence of considerable discomfort, disorientation, and distress.
Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished. Lao Tzu
Adopt the pace of nature. Patience is her secret. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Welcome to spring. May it bring you to greater clarity about your path forward.