Recently, I was talking with a close friend about the current state of the world. She felt overwhelmed by the uncertainty of things and didn’t know how to establish solid ground when everything around her seemed so shaky. How can we make plans for our future when we’re unsure of how our future will look? Where do we focus our energy when we cannot immediately see the fruit of our labor? When will this be over? If only we had a definite answer, maybe then we would feel more secure. Insert: Hope.

One of my favorite definitions of hope is “a feeling of trust.” It’s not a guarantee, a promise, or contract signed; instead it’s a feeling, an inner knowing, or a belief of faith. Often faith is a tricky word for some people who err on the side of science but as the famous author Jenn Sincero once said “ You show your faith in gravity by not flinging yourself off of a roof and your faith in electricity by not picking at a socket with a fork. You may not understand the intricacies of how it all works, but still you’re totally down with following the rules.” We are all constantly putting our faith in things we don’t totally understand, both seen and unseen, so I invite you now to take this journey with me.

My friend and I began to discuss how in some ways we feel buried. Like how the whole world we planned for how has just suddenly come to a stop and instead of surrounded by the lightness that comes from reaching our goals, we’ve been flung into a moment of all pervading darkness. As we spoke, I began to picture the journey of a seed. How in the beginning of its life, a seed is placed into the ground, covered by dirt and left to be surrounded by complete and utter darkness. During this time, all they have, both the people and the seed, is hope. Hope that the seed will manifest the life potential it has inside of it. Hope that roots will grow and the seed with sprout towards the surface. We must invite in a feeling of trust that we’ve done what we can to impact the growth of these seeds and then we must allow  life to happen. Sound familiar?

As the world was before this crisis, we as a human race had become impatient, intolerant even, with waiting. Delayed gratification was a concept nearly thrown out the window as we raced towards faster, more immediate results for everything we did. No longer having the time to trust in the process, we were encouraged to force results and bear the fruit of our labor quicker than previously thought possible. This led to the destruction of the planet, overuse of natural resources, and damage to our mental and physical wellbeing.  But now, we’ve all been forced to STOP  – to slow down, quit forcing and reacquaint ourselves with hope.

The seed has to be buried if it is going to grow. It must recruit the resources around itself to turn inward and use it’s inner strength to lay roots. The roots create a solid foundation from which new life can emerge from; everything that the single seed needs to emerge is already within. The same is true for us. Everything we need to emerge from this period of our of lives, all of the strength, all of the hope, it’s already inside of us. This period where it seems like almost everything has been taken from us, where we are surrounded by uncertainty and darkness, this can be our time to turn inward and find the strength within that we may have forgot was there all along.  Rather than asking the question when? Ask yourself, who and what? Who do you want to emerge as when this is all over? What do you want to bring forth into the world? Remember, there is no need to find the answers today. Sometimes we don’t know what’s going to emerge until it breaks the surface.