Roy’s Sunday Letter for April 26, 2026
About HOPE….How To Keep….Offer HOPE To Others
Lately, as I have talked and listened to friends and family, I heard and felt their general despair. This despair seems to be from reports on the news, decisions being made by the unqualified, random acts of violence and harm to the innocent. I also heard and felt an open need to Believe, to be encouraged by the decisions and acts of others, for having the goodness of our circle of friends and family affirmed.
Seeing and feeling Hope can be in the lighted candle, a speaker calling forth our best, or the “pay it forward” in a customer line. The reinforcement of a hopeful heart knowing when to limit the news of the day, seeking communications with trusted friends and social events of storytelling, laughter, and the sharing of the ups and downs of daily life seem to be some of the foundational parts of Hope.
Facing challenges with a weakened and unsure personal Hope can add to our sense of fear. That lack of Hope, for me, came as a young but also as an adult. Sometimes I was brave enough to tell someone or even asked for help. However, most of the time I did not…it probably was my ego getting in the way. I wish I had been more forth coming. Slowly, I learned a more open, trusting way of leadership and of being me. Sharing my experiences with others in similar situations with the Hope of strengthening that person’s life choices has been a real reward to my own sense of Hope.
I would like to offer four songs that support a Hopeful heart ad spirit. Two oldies and two newer, perhaps more familiar songs. “America The Beautiful”(1893} creates images of landscapes and fields valued then, lesser so today. Louis Armstrong recorded “What a Wonderful World” (1967) a decade of time in America of racial injustice, Vietnam and cities of unrest and anger. Armstrong remarked there was nothing bad about the world. We created our “bad” by acts of neglect or behavior against each other.
John Lennon wrote and released “Imagine” (1971). His visioning of a world of people living without hate and distrust, of living peacefully, of helping those both near and far to achieve their dreams and retaining a hopeful spirit. In the same time period, The Beatles released “With a Little Help from My Friends.” Their messaging of we all need the help of our friends to get by, to make it through, to be our true selves and true family pushes forward there is Hope in the power and goodness of togetherness. Still true today.
Dear reader, are you generally a Hopeful person? What sustains or drains away your Hope? What is one way you restore Hope within you? Have you found Hope in joining others in being Hopeful?
Roy, remembering those who shared their Hope with me.
I think as a person of Faith you have to be Hopeful. There are days when I despair but most days I am Hopeful because I realize most people are good, kind hearted and giving. Obviously there are a few bad apples but they have always been there and will continue to be. I surround myself with people that make me laugh and smile , hopeful people that enjoy the life they have.
Last night threats of severe weather were announced by sirens, interruption of TV programming to alert all to prepare for the worst by being mindful and preparing for nature’s whims. I received a text from a neighbor asking if I was OK and if I was aware of the current weather conditions. I replied that if need be let’s together face mother nature’s challenges together and bond together for the possibility of nature’s tyrads. What a wonderful of bonding to meet the unknown. I in turn telephoned another to bond in solidarity to face a possible onslaught of nature’s whims. We hoped together that all would be ok, but if need be we would care for one another.
So from a storm comes forth friendship and companionship
A good outcome from a dangerous time…..good for neighbors.
Well done by all…..
Hope can sometimes spring from the most dangerous and challenging circumstances. A recent push by the federal government and uranium industry advocates calls for the exploitation of New Mexico’s large uranium deposits to the detriment of water quality and soil contamination and the attendant hazards to human and environmental health. I work with a river -related nonprofit organization in northwest New Mexico that can use this as an opportunity to raise funds locally from foundations, units of government, and private donors to accelerate its studies of water and soil contamination and its cleanup efforts for the benefit of local communities snd the people who live here. Onward.
Always on point, Marcia!
I try to remain hopeful by focusing on the gifts that surround me, including this!
Your basket of gifts bountiful and welcomed.
There must be a reason for FT Worth travel……museums, long horn cattle twice daily parade.
& delightful to read your thoughts, always
My dear friend, mentor and person of my great respect. Thank you for this topic area. I want all the Sunday letter readers to know there are legions of good people, extraordinary people, ordinary people and more, who call us in pursuit of creating greater ease, greater love and greater hope by engaging in a partnership with our professional canines. We have had several conversations with the Phoenix Children’s Hospital recently that is developing its way forward to establishing a facility dog program to help in the many areas of service they engage. What is so hopeful and marvelous is that their value propositions are in line with ours. What does that mean? Create no harm. Be mindful and kind to the children, the doctors, nurses, staff, and canines. Use love to make a bridge. And so to us all: BELIEVE you can make a difference in the simplest of ways—say hello to a stranger, give way to someone trying to merge into a lane of traffic, look at the blue sky, appreciate the majesty of friendship and KNOW WITHOUT DOUBT that if you hold HOPE in your heart there is more HOPE in the world and that will be the galvanizing force of change for our neighborhoods, states, country and the world.
Friend forever Linda….
Humbling to read
There is a flow from SFe to Phoenix
Riding on the winds of Hope/
I will follow as the dreamtakes shape on 4 legs……
Every day at 3:00 pm I pray the full Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr. Many of us are familiar with the first half of the prayer asking God for serenity, courage, and wisdom. The lines that open the second half restore my hope:
Accepting the world as it is;
not as I would have it be.
Trusting that you
will make everything right.
the 2nd line is not for us with high control needs
What and who we allow to be the truth of versw 2
i go with both the verse and the messenger