I remember alarm bells ringing when I started reading, in 2002, how hopeless children and youth were feeling about the state of the world and their futures.
17 years later, as I watch and listen to children and youth demanding that we start to seriously reduce climate change, I sit here on a Saturday morning, wondering what more I can do to make a difference so that children and youth do not succumb to the overwhelming sense of despair that I too feel around the attempts to silence their demands.
For me, attending to our storied experiences of how we manifest hope and hoping in our relationships, feelings, actions, and thoughts makes visible who we are and are becoming individually and as a society.
The children and youth are manifesting their hope and hoping by marching and chanting their message, hoping at the same time that we will be moved to act in a way that aligns with the message that children are our future. They are demanding that we make our actions match our talk.
Although their marches boost my hope, I know from attending to my experiences that I need to do much more to maintain a hopeful stance on any given day, let alone when I think about how inconsequential I feel at times when I think about issues like the effects of climate change.
Writing this blog post, in itself is one small action that helps me feel more hopeful. Just like walking or riding my bike whenever possible instead of driving, hanging my clothes to dry instead of using the dryer, bringing my own bags to the store instead of using plastic do.
More recently I've added another action and that's to research/read everything I can to inform myself so that I can respond to the hope suckers without becoming immobilized.
My ultimate hope is that my actions spur others to think about the small things they can do to make a difference; however, small that difference is. I believe that our small actions taken together add up to big differences over time and more importantly inspire others to consider how they might contribute to more hopeful outcomes both in the present and future.
I wonder what would happen if after children and youth shared other ways they are contributing to reducing climate change while and after they marched. Perhaps, my hope is already being realized without my knowing. How great that would be. Until I hear otherwise, I will continue doing the things that fuel my hope!
