Sunday, March 23, 2008

the serenity of hope.




Sometimes hope is as impossible to grasp as trying "to catch the wind" as Donovan so beautifully composed in the 60's. His yearning to find solace through love encapsulates our own attempts to seek hope outside of ourselves. We have a tendancy to mesh these two together, or at least I do. Hope and love.........being loved fills us with hope. And so we go off in search of it.

love, love, love........hope, hope, hope......

There's a classic line from a movie which was spoken in angst with a strong Bronx accent by Harvey Fierstein......."I wanna be loved. Is that so wrong?" I don't know why it has always stuck in my head, and for the life of me, I can't even remember the movie if was from. But, the line was expressed in a way that made you laugh and feel eye widening compassion for his character at the same time if that's possible. I think we all can relate.
There are times in our lives when we feel terribly unloved and it's a crushing feeling. It has to be one of the loneliest sensations we can experience. It usually happens when we have done something we are ashamed or simply don't want to face, or when we are trapped in a maze of being misunderstood and dismissed by the people who matter in our lives. When the feeling washes over, it seems to strip you of hope too because it feels like the dark side of eternity.

As much as we may feel like the life raft needed to stay afloat is not within arms reach, as much as we sometimes feel like our arms are just too tired to tread water any longer while searching for that seemingly unreachable reassurance, as much as we don't know how we are going to cope with the onslaught of waves rolling in the windy tide because the strength in our hearts has been zapped of usefulness, we survive. There is an innate drive which can push us beyond what we perceive to be our limit. But, it doesn't come from trying to find it outside of ourselves. Hope and love are nestled in the remnants of our life experiences. I truly believe that. We have many external triggers which most definately surprise us with that uplifting sensation and these matter because they remind us that hope reawakens in every breath we take. It is in the spirit of life. And if you look at it that way, we do have the ability to catch the wind.
Today is a celebration of capturing the wind and transforming it into our breath of life. It's like we have been given a whole new fresh bunch of air to fill our bodies with a sense of being reborn. And by just simply taking one breath at a time, we can regenerate our empty vessels with the necessary ingredients to begin anew. We can't see it or hold it.........just like hope and love, but we can breathe it into us every time we fill ourselves with fresh oxygen.
How miraculous is that? It doesn't matter who we are, or what we are coping with........it doesn't matter what colour our skin is, how disconnected we are with our own communities.....it doesn't matter what we look like, or how old we are, and it surely doesn't matter whether we attend a formal church service, or whether we seek out the meaning of life going down a different path, we are all given the same gifts to quiet our hearts. WE are offered the serenity of hope, one breath at a time. We are loved. It's in the wind around us and in us. That's not so wrong.

Happy Easter.


15 comments:

paris parfait said...

Dana, very beautiful, thoughtful post, with photos to match. Where would any of us be without hope? Such a powerful necessity in our lives. Easter symbolises a renewal of the hope and faith we sometimes allow to languish by the wayside - much to our detriment. xo

Dustin said...

As much as your words, I come here to see the amazing pictures ;)

awareness said...

Tara.....we do forget about it sometimes don't we? But, it never goes away really. It just hides on occasion.....and just like an Easter egg hunt, we have to go searching for it, because as you say it is a truly powerful necessity.

Dustin....am glad you enjoyed these photos. I took them last summer in Prince Edward Island. I have to admit something.....though I am using them as sunrise pics, they were really an amazing sunset we watched from the Adirondack chairs we were sitting in......situated up on a small cliff overlooking the water. Oh, and I think there was wine involved too.

You should come up and visit PEI. It's so fabulous in the summer.... It is one of those places where I feel completely at home.

Blogger Charles LeBlanc said...

Hmmmmmmm....I just came here and I see that you and I used the same picture for Easter???

Hmmmmmmmm....ADHD minds thinks alike???

Hmmmmmm

Happy Easter....

awareness said...

Charles....you now know my secret. I'm a closet ADHD'er.... This is why when you and I meet up, we never seem to be able to finish a complete sentence!!

I just looked at the pictures on your blog....GREAT shots this weekend! I love the picture of the back of that guy's head looking at the Soup kitchen sign all covered in icicles....your title said it all. Some walk more than a mile too and it's been so bloody cold this weekend.

I also love the pic of Mr. Dog Walker guy. We see him ALL the time on our way home at the end of the day. He and his dogs are such a fixture along Woodstock Rd.

Your ice shots are great too. Are you in St. George for Easter??

Happy Easter to you Charles.

Blogger Charles LeBlanc said...

Nahhhhhh...I'm home but went out as you see in the latest pictures.

My God? I missed coaching kids!!!

You have a good easter also...

:)

Rainbow dreams said...

beautiful photos I agree..

indeed each new day brings new hope with the dawn...

Under there... said...

Happy Easter! Your photos make me want to genuflect more than the dreary decorations we have inside our churches.

Bar L. said...

Happy Easter, Dana!

Beautiful photo and words as always. We all want to be loved, we all need hope.

(Donovan....sigh....I was in love with him when I was a wee lass)

awareness said...

Charles....we'll have to arrange to meet for a photo shoot real soon.....over my lunch hour one day. :)

Katie...thanks....sometimes there is more hope found during the dawning of a day than in others don't you think??

Under...thank you! I love these pictures....they bring such warm memories of a week we spent in Prince Edward Island last summer. It is such a special place. We visit there with a bunch of friends every summer. The sky shots are fabulous!

I do think that for me, my most poignant religious moments, when genuflecting happens spontaneously have been outdoors.......nature offers a cathedral of miracles always. Happy Easter.

Layla......Happy Easter to you my friend. Jamie and I attended a Donovan concert around 1986 in Toronto at a small intimate venue. He was making a comeback I guess. It was so wonderful to see him live....and to be surrounded by his music. I continue to be a fan.

Blogger Charles LeBlanc said...

YOU WIN!!!!

I'm free today!!!!

I know you're reading this note with the sunrise rising!!!

UGH!!!

lol

What time today??

Noon and where???

Send me an email and I'll be there!!!

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Beautiful, Dana....! Just simply beautiful! You are a true poet, my dear...and with prose.

I believe that line you quoted that Harvey Firestein said was from the film of his play...(I cannot remember the name at this moment....But I thibk he says it to his mother, crying out for her understanding of his homosexualuty.....(I am going to have to look up this film----I will not ge able to rest till I find it...lol....)
Anyway....I love the idea that we gather hope with every breath we take. Thank You for this, my dear....! This was inspired.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Thank God for IMDB.COM....LOL!

"TORCH SONG TRILOGY"....I believe that is the film you were referring to....If not, well, he could have said it in THAT film! LOL!

awareness said...

Naomi....it felt like an inspired moment while writing it...so thank you. I find that while writing, I am learning myself. It's like the words and the learning are happening at the same time. There is a surrendering of control in order to let it flow and unfold. I think you feel the same with singing and creating? Sometimes it's difficult and other times it feels like it's part of your being.

You are most definately right about the Harvey quote. :)

Perplexio said...

Another song that comes to mind and expresses the same vibe as Donovan's Catch the Wind is the Sons of Champlin's Sing Me a Rainbow:

Sing me a breeze
Sing me a sky
Sing me a rainbow

It was released as a single in 1967, but went largely unnoticed outside the band's native Marin County, California. Their lead singer (and band's namesake), Bill Champlin, went on to be a grammy winning songwriter (Earth Wind & Fire's After the Love Has Gone and George Benson's Turn Your Love Around) and joined pop sensation, Chicago in 1982.

Your post approached Easter's message from a much different angle/perspective than my blog post did last Friday, but I believe we came to very similar conclusions.