It seems like every day the world becomes a scarier, more dangerous place to live in. But the more this happens, the more I want to remind myself of the beauty, hope, and promise that this world also holds.
There is hope if we choose to see it. It might be hiding in the simplest and most unlikely places, but it’s there. We must hold on to that hope and we must protect it. Now more than ever.
Hope is what I think of when I see this photo. I took it two years ago on my first-ever long-haul flight. I was traveling alone, going somewhere I had never been to before. It was a trip I didn’t quite plan on taking and I had no idea what awaited me at my destination. But I remember feeling so giddy that I couldn’t stop grinning. I must have weirded out the guy sitting beside me, but I didn’t really care.
It felt like such an adventure… as if I was heading into the great unknown. Perhaps that’s why this photo always makes me smile. It’s a snapshot of a time in my life when I had no idea what I was doing but I was overflowing with excitement and anticipation nonetheless. It reminds me of a time when the world didn’t feel so scary and dangerous.
Indeed, photos are such powerful things. Even the simplest images can remind us that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, our world still holds so much hope and promise. All we need to do is learn to be still for a minute, take a breath, and look around.