蜜芽传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Canon Susanna Gunner.

Good morning.

I鈥檝e recently co-led some Zoom sessions about Emily Dickinson, the reclusive 19th century poet from Massachusetts, famous for her startling first lines. One poem we looked at began 鈥淕rief is a mouse鈥︹�� Who would ever have guessed that?

Our last poem began 鈥淗ope is鈥�.鈥� You may well know how it goes on 鈥� it鈥檚 one of her most famous 鈥� but if not, you鈥檙e probably in for a surprise: 鈥淗ope is the thing with feathers鈥� Emily tells us.

She continues by describing a plucky little bird perching in our souls, singing away even in turbulent times. In fact, she says, hope鈥檚 song is sweetest when life is harshest.

The wonderful thing about the poem is that it makes us ask what we think hope is. What metaphor for hope would you have supplied? One thing鈥檚 certain 鈥� hope is both a vulnerable and a valuable entity just now. And it鈥檚 much more than wistfully dreaming of better: the courageous bird in Emily鈥檚 poem makes that clear. When it鈥檚 so easy to be hopeless 鈥� in the face of climate change, for example, or pandemic - to live hopefully is an act of resistance. And it can change things. Daringly, defiantly, the hopeful person will simply not accept an unacceptable situation. Hope is an activist. The American theologian Walter Wink offered the uplifting assertion that, 鈥淗ope imagines the future and then acts as if that future is irresistible鈥�.

God of hope,
make your home in us
that we too may dare to hope.

Amen