How do you all keep up hope?

I've been thinking on this a lot lately, and I was happy to see this thread. It's really scary to lose hope, and seeing honest posts about others struggles is really comforting and refreshing to read - thank you everyone for sharing their vulnerability and thoughts here.

As for me, I have good days and bad days in regards to hope. The one virtue I try to cling to in life is this:

I fight for the things that I love only for the simple fact that I love them.

Quite frankly, that's it. I love the earth, the planet, its animals and all of its people. This is my home and the only planet I'll ever know, and damn it I'm going to fight for it till the bitter end, I just don't care how "hopeless" the situation is.

Because realistically, what's the alternative? To just accept that things are bad, and submit to the circumstances? To cower in the face of bad odds and let the things I love perish? To let the bad guys win, all because I'm too scared to fight?

Only my enemies thrive in my submission to their circumstances, and I hate them to much to have that over me. Only my enemies lose power in the face of my opposing, shining hope, and I'll wield hope as my sword until the battle has been seen through to the end. No fascist, no corporation, no government and no evil will succeed in taking my hope from me, I will die with hope in my last breath before I ever give my heart to the side of evil.

The greatest foolishness we humans can do is give up a battle before its even lost - the only option we create for ourselves then is defeat.

I'm no blind optimist - I'm well aware of the numbers, the statistics, the current science. By all metrics, things don't look good, and I know this battle we're facing won't be won so easy. But for as long as we submit, we are leaving no room for anything else other than evil. Can I not make room in my heart to believe in miracles? Leave faith for the hardworking conservationists, scientists, and volunteers who are giving their all to help us win?

So if I sound like a crazy, radical optimist - it's because I am. Because why should I be anything else? Because I hope one day, you can be one too.

How can you help cultivate hope within others and yourself?
1. Do not be ashamed of having hope. Be loud, be vocal, and let others know you are OUT there, that there are still those fighting "the good fight" and that there's community and solidarity in shared belief. Art, protests, silly T-shirts, zines, visibly mended jeans, smiles, and a posts like these are all proof that hope lives on and that there are still people out there trying to make the world a better place.
2. Let hope be a JOYFUL experience. As I mentioned earlier, hope can be hard to grasp - the odds are scary and the opposition will do everything in it's power to make hope feel like a lost cause, a painful disappointing emotion, and a waste of time - this is ANYTHING but the truth. No matter what you do to share the light of hope, your actions DO have impact, and the joy you create from supporting hope will always outweigh the negative emotions of inaction and despair.
3. Find what you love most, and fight for it the hardest. We all love countless things in life - art, music, poetry, turtles, you name it. But when you start to list all the things you love and combine it with all the things you need to do to help them, it can be overwhelming to say the least. Again, the opposition RELIES on this tactic to overwhelm us, making us feel like if we can't save it all we might as well not even try. Once again, this is NOT anywhere close to the truth. The reality is, our scope of action may small, but it is not meaningless. If you love turtles, it is better to go all in on being "The Hero Turtle Guy" than trying to be an expert of everything all at once (you won't succeed and will just burn yourself out - a symptom many of us feel as a source of our hopelessness).
4. Get off the digital poison and look around yourself, at the real world around you that's still thriving and begging to be fought for. I know we all know this, but how many of us really can separate ourselves from the doomscrolling? Doomscrolling is a WEAPON designed to crush our spirits, lulling us deeper into a state of acceptance and passivity towards evil. Don't let the soul crushing machine grind you down! I can't express how important disconnecting from sources of doom and replacing it with sources of love will change your life, your outlook, and the opportunity for good you can do in this world.

I know I can't change the world all on my own, but it's okay because I know I was never meant to do it alone. My greatest joy in life and my biggest contribution to the world is helping people see that the world is not lost, and that for as long as love and joy live we have things worth fighting for.

If you ever need someone to talk to about hope, hopelessness, action, inaction, your fears or your passions, or just need a friend to help you find that joy, feel free to DM me here and we can swap emails - I'd love to help you find your hope again.

Love and strength to all who need it in these hard times.