In Search of Active Hope and the Belief We Matter

How small, intentional actions become a shield against global despair.

Sitting in a cafeteria on a Saturday for 2 hours while sipping cups of specialty coffee and reading a book of choice is a dream for many. Lucky for me that is an accurate description of my weekends.

My health is of decent levels. I am entering my 18th year of marriage and my husband and I have plenty of hugs and laugh moments together every week. Our dog puts a smile on our faces every single day.

Although I am an immigrant in a far away land, I am lucky enough to have a couple of siblings in the same city and aside from struggling with very dark and long winters, my life is hardly anything to complain about. 

Then enters the world and my little perfect life is meshed into the many imperfect things that the world goes through every day.

The same little screen connected to the World Wide Web that allows me to stay up to date with far away friends and family, also comes with a Wide range of topics from, literally, all over the World, and then it all turns into a Web in my head that leaves me exhausted.

One day I ache because the regime in Iran keeps killing people in complete grotesque and unjustifiable ways. 

Before I can get over that pain, a shower of disappointment bathes my soul as I watch videos of what seems to be the normalization of deviance in Venezuela.

Then a local acquaintance posts about the death of a friend in the army and how this motivates them to keep fighting in aiding Ukraine win the war.

Catching a relentless seasonal virus becomes the perfect excuse to disconnect from all that madness and noise and pain. In this temporary disconnection, I redefine the ways in which I want to engage with the world. Everything is much more than a single soul can handle, so I want to find the little parts in which I can make a difference without getting overwhelmed by all of it

Jane Goodall reminds me that hope is active. In the book The Book of Hope, she says this about hope: “It is a human survival trait and without it we perish.” And I think we want to keep going. I want to keep going and so I go on a quest of actions that may seem meaningless but that slowly bring me away from the pain and the sadness.

When choosing a book, I pick an Iranian author. Her historical novel centered around two friends who meet as kids in Tehran in the 1950s reminds me that Iran is so much more than this current regime. The novel tells me of painful moments that are too much like today, but it also reminds me of the beautiful Iranian people I have met, and their art, and their cuisine. It also reminds me of the precious things unnoticeable to the untrained eye: my long hair, freely flowing in the sun for everyone to see. My choice. That is a little action of hope.

Every time I meet a new person ready to work in their financial journey, I listen with an open heart and exuding curiosity. Many people come with fears that is too late, with worries that they are bad with money, with conflicts between helping others and the need to prioritize themselves. Even when I see patterns, I also see each story is unique and so I try and put a mirror in front of them that shows them their strengths and what they have in their personal arsenal to keep going forward with confidence. That is a little action of hope

When actively looking for a job, I no longer see the noise of the news and the desperate personal stories of a bad job market and an unfair hiring process. I choose to see the interesting things many companies are working on that I was not aware of before. My thirst for learning is stirred up and my best self shows up into these interviews with genuine interest. In that way, I am a Venezuelan doing the opposite of normalizing deviance. I hold myself to high standards. And that means a little piece of Venezuela and a little piece of Estonia are something to be proud of. That is a little action of hope.

I think we matter. Our actions, our choices, our words matter. This text is, in its own way, one more little action of hope and I hereby deliver it to you, so maybe it helps find within you the spark to act in what you can, within your reach and interest, preserving your energy but not hoarding it. Rather, give yourself to the world in the space you occupy, in the streets you walk, in the interactions you have every day. If the world feels like too much, switch off the phone and focus just on that little piece of world right where you stand. That matters, too.

Happy Saturday,
Maria 🌺