Finding Hope

Acryla Gouache on paper 6 x 6, 2023 by Helen Ries

Last night our book club gathered. We are a fun group of women who like to read, talk and drink tea. We have been together for about six years, even slogging it out through the pandemic on Zoom or bundled in blankets sitting outside in the cold. 

This month's book was scientific and it coaxes us to consider how animals perceive and respond to their surroundings. I didn’t read it. It was too dry. Unlike my fellow book clubbers, I don’t have the fortitude to make it through books that I can’t connect with right away so I sheepishly only listen in on the discussion. 

Our book club is made up of women who feel and worry deeply, there is concern for the crises that are closing in like our missing winter, political clowning, the lack of will to find resolutions for conflict, the relentless and persistent pounding of injustice for many. 

Not surprisingly the animals in the book are struggling because of human impact and so the conversation turns to the environment - what is going to happen, what demise will we meet and by the way does the Hemlock Society still exist? 

As our tornado of stress for the state of our world churns through the living room someone says…”but there is always hope”. 

She has thrown us a life preserver. Hope rescues us from our churn.  Our lighter selves return and up bubbles the laughing, joking and sharing stories of our lives.