the bright shininess of hope

As I write this post I’m still searching for the words to say this in the most effective way without offending those who I’m presuming to know the thoughts of. Here it goes one way or the other.

I was meditating and this occurred to me, partly because I just saw Django yesterday and partly because I was having one of those moments of tranquility.

This all got me to thinking about tiny bits of hope/freedom/happiness. I thought about how during the days of slavery there still must have been moments that those who were enslaved must have felt tiny bits of peace. How do you endure the kind of torture these fellow human beings lived through and still find a way to carry on each day? There had to have been ways to get yourself killed or to kill yourself to finally end the abuse but they found a way to live everyday. I wondered if maybe there were parts of their day that they were able to have hope or feel peace. Maybe the walk to the spring alone to get water. Maybe a night listening to the rain on the roof. Maybe after a particularly cold day to finally get next to a fire.

I expanded this notion to include POWs. These folks must have had moments they felt at peace or how could they survive? You could expand this whole notion out to include numerous people who’ve endured horrific circumstances.

Here is the reason for this post. Think about all of the people who have survived terrible abuse and injustice and how they must have found times that they knew peace even in the worst of it. Then think about how everyday you have access to knowing peace throughout most of your day yet you can only see what’s ugly, what’s negative, what’s not going your way. Your day is mostly wide open to see with love, peace and hope. You aren’t having to try to find a moment here or there in between abuse/torture/injustice. You have that opportunity every second of everyday.