It is (can you believe it?) finally Spring!
I subscribe to a weekly newsletter that I treasure for
its thoughtfulness and inspiration and a few weeks ago, it introduced me to a
writer named Rebecca Solnit who has written a book about walking and another
book about hope. Two things that I think
are embodied in the notion of Spring. Walking
for me isn’t just about the physical, it’s also about the philosophical. I see things differently when I walk as
opposed to running, riding or driving; when walking, my inner and outer worlds are
moving together in sync.
Solnit says about walking:
And then there’s the hope that the season of Spring brings
with it; for sunlight and warmth, renewal and growth, for good possibilities.
Solnit says about hope:
“It’s important to say what hope is not: it is not the
belief that everything was, is, or will be fine. The evidence is all around us
of tremendous suffering and tremendous destruction. The hope I’m interested in
is about broad perspectives with specific possibilities, ones that invite or
demand that we act. It’s also not a sunny everything-is-getting-better
narrative, though it may be a counter to the everything-is-getting-worse
narrative. You could call it an account of complexities and uncertainties, with
openings.”
And so I walk gratefully with all of you in the spring
sunshine, full of hopeful possibilities.
