into 2021 we go

We have rolled into 2021 and I’ve decided to try something new with this blog: radical hope.

Now there was a time when those two words together might have hinted at an oxymoron, but today they feel like necessary partners, don’t they? I think so. So, I’m going against my very natural instinct of lamenting about the year before - and 2020 held a whole lot to lament about - and am choosing instead to look ahead.

For those of you who know me, have read my work or perused my previous years of blogging, you’ll know that I’m not exactly known for writing about hope. But in the last two years, I’ve been more hopeful than I have at any other time in my life. And that’s not just wishing for things, or speaking my desires out loud, or even writing them down.

No, hope is something entirely its own. It is intangible, frivolous and slightly dangerous, depending on how much you’re hanging on it. But it’s also a fuel for something better, a propeller to that next thing that could help you glimpse a nugget of happiness. It’s that sweet sounding music around the corner that you can only catch the melody of. Or that soft hub of light peeking out from behind a cloud. You don’t know for sure that it’s coming, but you’re still drawn to it, still believe in the possibility of it.

OK, I know I’m sounding a bit loopy right now but honestly, in the midst of the global trauma we’ve been going through, couldn’t we all just use a little hope? I know I could. Radically so, if I’m being honest.