HOPE

Georgann Low

Continuing with the subject of inner chuckling, I will add some words loosely derived from my book, RESURRECTING BUNNY: A Wild Child’s Pilgrimage, on the topic of HOPE. In my mind, the two go together.

After years spent sashaying around France, experiencing the high life to its fullest, my hair is silver, my skin wrinkled and my days numbered. Still, I have landed by grace in a simple cottage of contentment. That is, I’ve settled down into myself — a shining state which savors an abundance of self-love. (Perhaps I should thank myself here for the years of daily meditation.)

The harvest is on. I’m in the season of harvest, the inner harvest of contentment and new energy to devote to the artist in me. Thank goodness that early on I made friends with her. Particularly in shaky, unsettling times, I always had my pen and sketchpad to turn to.

My work was anything but perfect, but what mattered more was the self- expression.

Now that my inner vision has taken over for the dwindling eyesight of advancing age, I have found the precious gift of my inner chuckle. I wear laughter like a cape of streaming rainbow colors.

Here’s the thing. Help is available wherever you are. Truly at any moment you may choose to go deeper than the habitual surface dialogue of your mind — no matter how seductive it is — and b.r.e.a.t.h.e into the deeper reality within yourself where peace and quiet abide.

Listen, you cannot change what is past. Nor can you change the stressful reality outside you. It is only in this moment — right here — that your soul can smile on you, redeem you, and give you hope for the future.