We are in a truly pivotal moment in history. This is not an exaggeration. It is scary, it is intense, it is overwhelming, it is maddening, and there is so much grief. We are standing here together in common distress, but also, in common purpose. We are all here because despite all odds and the temptation to shut down, hide, and let the walls close in, we are called to witness and to act. We have kept our hearts open even as they break again and again at each new act of cruelty, and our spirits intact even as wounded would-be tyrants project their own unhealed pain on us and tear at the fabric of our lives and communities. I want to say I see you, and I see us. I am so proud of you, I am so proud of us. I see incredible strength in our kindness and adaptabilty, and indomitable power in our insistence that we will not throw anyone away, we will not stop showing up.
This Field we are building together is a recognition that no one we look up to, who has blazed trails of justice and universal human rights, who has lived like a shooting star of radical love, ever got to see the end of the work. They immersed themselves in the calling and in the togetherness of it all. They felt defeat, frustration, and righteous rage, but they turned again and again to their siblings in the struggle for liberation and to the light of hope, which is flame we each carry as children of the cosmos, literal stardust and lightning, and cannot be extinguished. In the eternal words of James Baldwin, "I never have been in despair about the world; I've been enraged by the world... I can't afford despair. You can't tell the children there's no hope."
The Field of Hope is about rising to meet this moment because what we do or don't do now will matter for generations to come. We will not abandon our duty as the future ancestors to all who will come after us, some of whom are growing up right now in a time of collapse and upheaval, and also great possibilty. There is energy that is freed in this breaking and disruption, and we will harness and channel it toward a new cycle of intergenerational care, embodied awareness of our own unique gifts and how we can empower ourselves to use them in service of a greater vision, and living out a solidarity mindset.
The Field of Hope is a place we will gather, grieve, learn, reflect, bond, and nourish each other. The Field of Hope is also us. We are a field of endless possiblity, and we will be the people we desperately need in this moment. Our shared light will open pathways to belonging where there are roadblacks of disconnection and cynicism, and to healing where there is hurt and hopelessness.
Thank you all for continuing to walk beside each other on this endless road; every step we take together toward something we may not be able to see yet but can feel beckoning to us from a brighter tomorrow is an act of great courage and affirmation. Nothing real can be taken from us. Not our love, not our affection for each other, not our commitment to justice, not our innate beauty and wholeness. We are a miracle and we will remind each other of this every day; we will be there for each other when we need it most. We will protect each other with the great force of our love, we will stand together in the storm, and we will rejoice together when the rainbows inevitably come.
