Núria Molina

Leonardo Polo

Hope has always been shrouded in an ambivalent mystery. This has been this way from its origins narrated in the "Myth of Pandora.” Pandora, that curious woman who opened the box that contained all the evils of humanity.  When she realized what she did, she closed it quickly and the only thing left in the box, was hope, hope stayed with her. Was it an evil? Was hope the only good that allowed her to restore confidence in men and women? How do you feel about it?

We live in times where we can no longer hide uncertainty. In the face of uncertainty, hope can become an open window that lets in fresh air, or it can leave us locked in a cold and dark room.

When we mistake hope for resignation, it leaves us locked in our suffering. We put our power outside and we remain passive, waiting for something to change, wanting it to. Thus, those who wait, despair. We often lose hope when we try to change what is not up to us, what is beyond our reach. We lose people we love, we see them get sick, and we can do little more than hope, hopefully, for a change of script. We suffer and despair when we lose the job, in which, we gave so much.  And the same happens when projects, dreams, illusions, and so on, come to an end or collapse.

How do we keep hope in these landscapes? How do we transform that apparent evil into our greatest good? How do we take flight? Focusing on what one does depends on us. Hope will not give us back the person we lost, or our jobs, or our projects. However, if we cultivate it, it can help us to connect with love, to go through fear and sadness, and to know that intensity will pass and doubts will clear. If we approach it this way, hope can transform ours and other’s life, it can make us connect with vital energy. It can make us see well-being as something possible, even in the face of the desolate landscapes that we sometimes live. How do we achieve this U-turn? Through optimism. Optimism makes us creative, allows us to find solutions to what seemed insurmountable, makes us believe in the future, gives us room for change. It allows us to say "I am here;” "I have power over what happens to me;" "I am not going to give up!”

It is true, that when life seems to collapse, talking about optimism seems crazy. It seems impossible to get the strength to get up and build with what we have: suffering, frustration, feeling of helplessness, anger, fear.  However, if you look inside yourself, you will surely find a moment in your life in which hope saved you and eased your pain by focusing on what was possible, so that every day you keep getting up.

Gabriel Marcel used to say that hope is only possible if we believe in a miracle, and what is that miracle? That miracle is knowing that you have the great power to manage your thoughts, your emotions, and your actions. That you and your circumstances belong to you. That you cannot change what happens outside of you, but you can change the way you think, feel, and do in the face of what happens to you. That there, is the true freedom; hope that can save us from the worst point of view, and that is the hope we want to cultivate. Laugh, shout, cry, everything is fine and at the same time, hope! Go and create your miracle.

Know more:

Video: The Myth of Pandora: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeQW6p6_ZFc (English version)

YouTube channel: Tik Tak Draw. Video: PANDORA'S BOX | Draw my life

Watch the video and answer the following questions: What makes you feel? How do you live with hope? Is it the last thing you lose? Do you know that you can transform your life and get up after each storm?

Movie: If you want more, a wonderful movie: Life is Beautiful.

Book: La Felicidad, Desesperadamente. André Comte-Sponville