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Instead they ride alongside the terrible. Last week, while taking about the power hope has, I reminded us that the love and kindness do not cancel out the terrible things and the suffering.
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But that is not the whole story because the world is also ablaze with love and kindness, beauty and grace. Yes, the world is drenched with turmoil and strife. I reminded us that in the face of troubles both personal and global, there are resources available to us to counter all the bad things. Last week I spoke about the power of hope. “Dum Spiro, Spero.” It is Latin., meaning “While I breathe, I hope.” (And I have discovered the first word is D-U-M, not D-O-M – although both spellings seem to be all over the internet, strangely.) While I breathe, I hope.
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My friend said it was a helpful reminder. It was in the midst of a time when everything was falling apart and another friend posted the phrase. The phrase “Dum Spiro, Spero” is something I saw on one of my friend’s Facebook. If it is not personal trouble that tempts you to despair, perhaps it is the social or political climate that leads you to misery. I know several people who have expressed a growing despair or hopelessness for the trajectory we are on in terms of climate change, income inequality, colonialism and war, and racism and other injustices. The mass shootings and the #metoo phenomenon weigh on my heart. The political turmoil we are experiencing, in our country and in the world, is unsettling. Where do you turn when you begin to lose hope? Where do you see other turning when you witness them uncovering resources of hope to help them carry on in the face of difficulties? Countless others in my circle of friends and family struggle with anxiety, chronic pain, and depression and there are times when the pain and the depression hit a spike and become severe. Another person I know is swept under by medical debt, barely managing the ramifications of the medical problems let alone knowing where to even start with the financial woe. Last winter I learned that another friend, one with a history of alcoholism, was dealing with a new addiction: prescription pain-killers. Then within a year all of those things imploded. After several fits and starts, my friend had landed a good job, settled down to a happy marriage, and moved to a new town. Email The Academy at Erin Belieu.A few years ago, I watched a friend’s life fall apart. The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. She directs the creative writing program at Florida State University and lives in Tallahassee, Fla. It's a good life, if you don't give in." -Erin BelieuĮrin Belieu is the author of "Slant Six" (Copper Canyon Press, 2014). That's rock bottom, isn't it? But I think the urge to make poems in our darkest moments is a very hopeful one.
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We humans often try to keep our sentimental stories in place, knowing that when we finally let go of them, we'll have to face the self-deceptions that allowed us to willingly participate in causing our own pain. "This was written at the beginning of grieving a long relationship, and a family, that died from chronic dishonesty and unfaithfulness. Here is the Poem-A-Day for March 30, 2016.