Well, we can check one more thing off our bucket list: celebrating the New Year in the midst of a global pandemic. Was it weird? Did it dull some of the sparkle you’d normally feel?  Or maybe you’ve gotten so good at letting go of whatever “normal” is that you’re taking this new beginning in stride?

To kick off the new year, we are so excited to share with you our brand new Living Room Conversations video below. In just one minute, it tells the story of why we do this work. And it asks about the last time you felt hope about the state of the world.

So exactly what do we mean by hope?

Hope is active. Hope’s eyes are trained forward for what can be, while holding every bit of pain and beauty right here before us. Hope opens us up to groundlessness trusting the ground will come.

Practicing hope strengthens many of the same muscles as practicing conversation.

There is so much we can’t control about the world. Cultivating resilience to sit with perspectives we might find uncomfortable is at the heart of a conversation practice.

Cultivating resilience to sit with external outcomes we might find uncomfortable, like not getting that promotion, or our team losing the big game, is at the heart of practicing hope.

Clearly facing reality creates conditions for new possibilities to emerge. Through conversation and through hope, we can touch the luminous web that connects us all.

Please use this video to invite others into conversation. Please share it far and wide so that others may find the rootedness and energy that comes from these practices.

Let’s do what we can to awaken a sense of true hope this year.

Happy New Year, friends.

Shannon Mannon

Newsletter Editor