18/06/2016 I fall, I rise, I make mistakes, I live, I learn, I’ve been hurt but I’m alive. I’m human and I’m not perfect but I’m thankful. – Unknown Reflecting on hope, I think the thing that fills me with hope is balance. Balance in life is extremely important. Daily we are bombarded with stories of people committing atrocities, with negativity, with the dark side of human life. Yes, there are terrible things that happen to people and it is easy to slide into a negative mindset because of this. But what we are not bombarded with, in fact we have to search for, is the multitude of inspiring and wonderful things that happen on a daily basis. Darkness and light cannot exist without the other, they are opposing forces and it is up to each and every one of us to find the balance. Some people will resonate with darkness and others with the light, the majority slide between dark and light. It is not the large catastrophic events that allow darkness to rise, it is the small daily actions of disassociation and as John O’Donohue writes the lack of belonging. “The restlessness in the human heart will never be finally stilled by any person, project, or place. The longing is eternal. This is what constantly qualifies and enlarges our circles of belonging. There is a constant and vital tension between longing and belonging. Without the shelter of belonging, our longings would lack direction, focus, and context; they would be aimless and haunted, constantly tugging the heart in a myriad of opposing directions. Without belonging, our longing would be demented. As memory gathers and anchors time, so does belonging shelter longing. Belonging without longing would be empty and dead, a cold frame around emptiness. One often notices this in relationships where the longing has died; they have become arrangements, and there is no longer any shared or vital presence. When longing dies, creativity ceases. The arduous task of being a human is to balance longing and belonging so that they work with and against each other to ensure that all the potential and gifts that sleep in the clay of the heart may be awakened and realized in this one life.” ― John O'Donohue, Eternal Echoes To find balance and combat the external pressures we must embrace our soul and the inner life that the soul encompasses. Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Albert Einstein