Here we are once again dear travelers sharing this quest journey with me!  A few more Xs on our map as we seek what Hope Is. 

Many of you already know the tips for how to hike the distance with me each month.  For those who have just put on your backpacks and are taking the first steps, let me offer it is not a requirement to walk all the miles at one time.  Sure, you can if you would like, yet it is also ok to walk a few miles (read one of the coordinates), pause, and then walk a few miles another day (read another one of the coordinates) and continue until you have walked the distance before the next leg of our journey (April).  In whatever way you choose to join me, my wish most of all is that you find it to be a beautiful and rewarding hike.   

Hope Is

42.48387° N, -86.08205° E

Recently I saw the title to a book by Zoe Weil: The World Becomes What We Teach.   During the past month, I had a very special privilege of spending time in person with thirteen amazing parts of the world and their extraordinary teacher who must have a vision for the world to be one of compassion, joy, confidence, kindness, authenticity, bravery, determination, resilience, inclusion, imagination, creativity, acceptance, experimentation, respect, faith, playfulness, love, and hope.   

Just to name a few elements of this teacher’s vision that I witnessed in action when I spent a few hours with extraordinary young souls. 

Hope Is Alyssandra, Valentin, Alex, Cain, Katelyn, Aleeyah, Nevaeh, Gabbi, Jaxon, Kiarah, Jacob, Garrett, Gatlin, Maydelyn, Rick, Amber, Malik, and Perla. 

Life has a beautiful way of bringing us back around in a circle, though where we come back to is not the point in which we began.  I was a guest in this elementary class being taught by a teacher who first became my friend when we were in elementary school together.   I remember my friend needing to get to campus for morning elementary ed classes when we were roommates during college.  Many years later and routinely I witness the smiles on young adult faces who once had my friend as their teacher, their smiles of gratitude for the seeds she planted within them when they, too, were once third graders to become what she had taught. 

Hope Is witnessing a lifetime friend living her calling she answered thirty-six plus years ago when she knew that she wanted to be an elementary teacher.  She knew she wanted to be there at the formative stages of young minds to not only teach a foundation in math, science, reading, and writing.  Most of all, she wanted to be one who would help each young soul build their most important foundation of all.  That of self-worth.

Before my visit, these amazing students were learning about stories from Hope Has a Cold Nose.   They were spending time thinking about the beacons of hope:  For self, for family, for school, and for our country/the world. 

And then our paths crossed during my quest.  Thirteen inspiring, imaginative, talented, innocently wise, and wonderful individuals shared with me what Hope Is.   Five additional inspiring, imaginative, talented, innocently wise, and wonderful individuals were not able to be at school the day the quest stopped in their class.  I think that means I will need to plan a next time to learn from each of them.  (smile)

Without further haste, it is my honor to share with you Hope Is:

Garrett shares that hope is possible when you have really cool rocket-boosters on a car that also has the ability to fly through the sky:

Nevaeh shares Hope means what you hope for like I hope my grandma to feel better.  Hope is like a wish that hope can make you feel better.   

For Maydelyn, Hope Is me and my family.  Sometimes we paint {together}.  Not all the time.

For Alyssandra, Hope Is a new home.  Hope is stars in the sky.

Valentin shares Hope Is that my cat comes back.

For Jacob, Hope Is what I think hope means is wishing. 

Katelyn shares Hope Is something you want or something you need like a dog or like an animal or a picture or people.  I hope for a friend.

For Alex, hope is helping catch someone if they begin to fall

Amber shares hope is when people feel better.   And I hope everyone gets Christmas.

Gatlin shares the sun is bright, but when it gets darker the hope is all we have.

For Rick, hope means having faith in something or someone like family and animals

Cain shares hope means to wish for something for yourself

Kiarah shares to you hope just might mean something you want or something you wish for but for me hope means good things or I hope you get better.  It means kindness or helping others.  Hope makes you feel good inside.  Or makes you feel happy.   Hope can also mean to have a friend by your side or someone that believes in you.  Hope also means you have confidence, or you believe yourself.  But if you don’t have hope life might not be so happy for you.  But with hope, life can be a little more easy.   Always have hope and you will have a happy life.  Hope is a good thing so always have hope.   When you are sad, have some hope.  A puppy or a kitten can bring you hope.   That’s the end.  Hope you learned something about hope. 

Hope Is

In how young hearts see and feel the world around them.

And in what young minds are learning.

I leave this x on the map asking myself what am I teaching the world to become when my path crosses a young mind and heart? 

What are each of us teaching?

27.336433° N, -82.531136° E

https://www.embracingourdifferences.org/

41,500 students participated in a 19^th annual event.

I did not have the honor of talking to those who imagined this first annual event and continued to fuel its fire for eighteen more years and counting.  Yet, I had the sacred privilege of “hearing” their voices – and 41,500 more voices – in the words read and the images seen. 

Hope Is along a sidewalk that follows a channel of water that holds a twenty-four square mile piece of Earth.     

I walked this sidewalk and found an additional 41,500 students learning what thirteen inspiring young hearts and minds were teaching me a few weeks prior through their actions I witnessed and their words I heard them speak.  Compassion, joy, confidence, kindness, authenticity, bravery, determination, resilience, inclusion, imagination, creativity, acceptance, experimentation, respect, faith, playfulness, love, and hope.  

Enjoy glimpses of this walk with me now.

27.51991° N, -82.5756° E

Hope Is

Changing the world, one dog and one life at a time for

Those visually impaired

For U.S. military veterans

For children and youth

For Gold Star military families who are now journeying with loss and grief

For families who grieve the loss of a beloved veteran who reached the end of hope (suicide)

Home – Southeastern Guide Dogs

I was given not just one extraordinary gift from the heart of a best friend.   I was given not just two gifts when I shook the hand of Sean as he warmly welcomed my best friend and myself to an organization where

Heroes are trained.

I was given an overflowing of gifts by getting to meet and spend time with Sean, Nick, Jess, Nicole, Lauren, Emily, Benny, Katie, Jingles, Krista, Maggie, Mike, Ryan, and the sweetest little hero in the make. 

Hope Is

A loving occupational therapist who works in a state of the art rehabilitation center to ensure a quality of life for senior heroes who fulfilled their callings in their youth to guide someone as a set of seeing eyes or to be ready in a moment’s signal to put their front paws against the lap of a veteran to gently remind in an anxious or terrifying moment I’ve got your back in this moment, I’m right here, and it’s ok.  I’m not going anywhere, here is my hug, and it is ok. 

Hope Is

A compassionate leader of all who tend to the puppies from conception to birth to foster placement for initial training as each hero prepares for the next stage of training in which they begin to earn their capes.   

This leader is able to give first-hand testimony regarding the powerful bond between a soul in fur and a human soul.  She witnessed the miraculous love that grew between two souls where the only communication was as an occasional oh so very soft formative kick from one and the ability to hear each other’s drumming heartbeats.  Each for the other was sight unseen for a time.   Nearly nine months to be exact.  Momma Montana the soul in fur.  The other drumming heartbeat this leader’s daughter before she was born.  Every day during this leader’s pregnancy this hero in training would lay across this leader’s belly.  Once the daughter was born, the bond with Momma Montana was inseparable.  Two hearts beating became one.

Hope Is

A caring midwife of expectant hero mothers and the soon to be heroes that will walk beside someone in need.    What a sacred gift to be shown pictures of an ultrasound displaying the tiniest of images growing inside a mother canine womb. 

Hope Is

New life. 

This midwife is someone who takes great care not only to monitor each pregnancy but who also continually checks the health of the expectant parents and the parents who would like to be expectant someday.   She does not want to put any furred father, mother, or puppy at risk of health issues later down the road.  She does not want to put any person in need of a future hero at risk of heartache if their service or guide dog experiences health issues such as hip dysplasia or cancer.  

Hope Is

Only two prescription medications per day for physical injuries, two that was once sixteen. 

Hope Is

Once feeling completely disconnected, scared, alone, isolated from…everything to now finding reason to “obey” the willing eyes ok, dad, time to get off the couch now, let’s go outside and take a walk.  Hurry now, it’s time to get moving. 

Hope Is

Once so filled with remorse and shame to see a spouse terrified and to watch a marriage careening towards a point of no longer “we” to witnessing a radiant smile again across a spouse’s face and to feel the marriage is now thriving thanks to Pellet.

Or Nick.

Or Ryan.

Three heroes in fur serving heroes who once were in uniform as service men.    

Hope Is

Now finding an ability to recognize the triggers that could cause an eruption before there is hot lava scalding everyone in its wake.  Before it was the constant tug and pull between feeling in control and out of control of the dormant lava deeply encasing the emotional pain.  It is one of the hardest things to do is acknowledge when one is hurting, especially if the wounds are the interior kind no one can typically see. 

Hope Is canine intuition and a tension ice breaker in the form of a fur coat and padded feet.  Someone who will intuitively sense things are getting serious or uncomfortable and will immediately turn on his impersonation of the character Goofy.  Like Ryan has done for his veteran when sitting through a church ceremony. 

Hope Is

Listening to that inner whisper that sounded so far away when it initially urged reach out and ask about this healing modality.  See if a canine could help you on your journey with P.T.S.D.  It might feel like it’s a scarlet letter you start wearing if you get paired as a service team.  But, hey man, look, don’t you already feel like your sudden bursts of frustration with strangers is a flag you wave noticeably.  Go ahead, reach out.  What do you got to lose?  The worst case is you stay alone, scared, frustrated, and heck, that is already worst since it is so familiar to you.   Go ahead, reach out.  See what they say. 

Hope Is

Becoming a canine service team certainly.  And hope is reestablished comradery.  It is gaining a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood again after active duty.   Reaching out via email was met with a returned personal phone call.  Ninety minutes later included an invitation to meet for breakfast with some of the service dog teams.   That breakfast day including a helping of understanding, inspiration, and belonging. 

Yep, self, you were right when you nudged “go ahead, reach out.”   If anyone thinks I’m wearing a scarlet letter, well, I guess I have only one thing to say. 

Hope Is being an inspiration to others by proudly wearing a scarlet letter for all to see. 

Because there might just be someone who sees me with Ryan and they listen to that inner voice saying go ahead, reach out, it will be ok. 

I will gladly wear this scarlet letter if it means a life is saved.

Hope Is

An exceptional animal whisperer of first zoo life, then dolphins, and now heroes in fur coats, a trainer of the guide and service dogs like dear Benny.  My best friend and I go to meet Southeastern Guide Dogs very adorable – and incredibly trained – ambassador, Benny.  We were shown how someone is helped in finding a sense of groundedness if they are experiencing anxiety.  We were shown how hugs are given and how a service dog will sit close to keep a safe distance and barrier from any external stimuli less than soothing to the person they are serving.  We observed mobility assistance.  We observed Benny’s unconditional loving eyes and his pure joy in being the hero he has been trained to be.     

Hope Is

Additional beautiful and extraordinary souls that are also a part of the Southeastern Guide Dogs team who each honored their inner whispers to live a life of service for both canines and humans in need of the healing dogs can bring.   One has witnessed the support that can be given for someone who is autistic or for someone who is mobility challenged.  One has witnessed the power of canines in bomb detection.  Both followed their hearts to SE Guide Dogs where they then sat next to me with Jingles and Maggie by their sides, two additional heroes I had the privilege to meet.

When I talked with these wonderful hosts and hostesses about what led me to writing Hope Has a Cold Nose, I was saddened to learn a fear I had was a reality.   I feared that twenty-two was a mispresented statistic.    I learned it is more accurate to say thirty-one.   

Hope Is

The Southeaster Guide Dogs organization and the heroes with cold noses who focuses like the little boy on the beach with the starfish at his feet.   As my favorite parable says

But for that one I made a difference.

And for every one in which a difference is made, the number does not become thirty-two.

47.411293° N, -120.55627° E

Hope Is

Someone who believes that you are worthy.

That you are enough just as you are.

That your life is worth saving.

And then gives you a chance to be a change the world needs.

My quest led me to an incredibly inspiring organization full of determination, grit, reverence for Mother Nature, life-giving dignity, exceptional throwing arms for fetching toys {smile}, and hope.   

For our planet.  And for the most valued members of the Rogue team who

Walk with pawed feet, wear a coat made of fur, and have the most powerful, beautiful, brave, intelligent cold noses!

https://roguedogs.org/

Hope Is

Rogue Detection Teams  

Rogue Detection Teams gave me a sacred gift.  The gift is they shared from their heart what the heart of Rogue Detection Teams is.   When a heart is shared, it is not my place to alter it in any way.   I am honored to share with you on behalf of this amazing organization that Hope Is:

A conservation detection dog program based in Washington state, USA, with operations around the world. We advocate for adopting fetch-obsessed dogs from shelters that might not otherwise be adopted into a home environment, and we teach these supposed unwanted, last-chance dogs how to search for data on endangered species. Our rescue dogs work alongside their bounders, our name for our canine handlers. Our work is non-invasive, meaning we never handle or collar the animals we are seeking data on, which is also a win-win for wildlife who might otherwise be stressed by these activities. In this way, we hope to be a resource for wildlife, shelter animals, and researchers who require data on rare or cryptic species in the wild.

Hope can mean many things. It can be something to look forward to, a desire for something to happen. It can also be something or someone in which hopes are centered. In our case, it is all of the above and it all centers around our dogs.

When we adopt, we adopt for life and our dogs retire with the bounder they have bonded with the most in their career. We currently have 14 dogs in our program, ranging in ages from 1.5 years old all the way to 18. They are of all different breeds, be this lab mixes or cattle dog mixes. They are large, and small, have long tails or nubbins. We even have a Schipperke mix in our program, named Beckett. The one thing they each have in common is an obsessive need to play fetch. This need transcends all other needs for our dogs, and some won’t even eat or drink without an outlet to play fetch. In this way, these dogs did not make great home pets. Their obsession made it hard for them to connect with people, and without the constant ability to play fetch, some of their behaviors became undesirable and manifested either as aggressive or destructive. Before our dogs came to us, many were scheduled to be euthanized.

Our first hope is to be that last chance stop for many of these misunderstood, misfit, rogue dogs of the shelter world. They are not destructive. They do bond with people. But they need an outlet, they need a job, they need a purpose, and we hope to be that for them, through the work we do alongside them for wildlife conservation.

The dogs are our teachers, our colleagues, our equals, our best friends. When we first adopt our dogs, many have fear, most do not trust, they have anxiety, and some are even afraid of the outdoors, of leaves crunching under their feet, or of stumps that maybe look like wild animals to them. But once we provide them another outlook on life by teaching them that when they sniff an odor for us in the wild, they get to play fetch for finding it- their big scary world turns into a wonderful, fulfilling game working alongside their bounder.

We also have hope for wildlife in our work. Although our bounders love dogs, it’s not a love of dogs that led most of us into this career path. Instead, it was wildlife conservation and the desire to assist our wild places and spaces for future generations of people, animals, and habitats. How do we do this? By collecting data on understudied or endangered wildlife. It is our hope that our work highlights how every species has a special and unique role to play in our ecosystems. If we learn to respect, care for, and preserve a species as tiny as an endangered Oregon Silverspot butterfly larvae to a giant orca in the ocean, then we are making the connections between the importance of biodiversity to human health.

We also hope to be a resource to the science community, to highlight that this non-traditional technique may be able to assist in their research with a method that causes little to no stress to the species they are researching.

We hope to inspire youth from all walks of life to believe that they can pursue a career in the science field. This field isn’t closed to only those with special degrees, and even though the path to get here is challenging, we hope that our dogs are ambassadors to those who may doubt they have a place in science.

And as this method grows, and many are seeking to purchase dogs, or pursue special dog training regimes, we hope to be a resource to highlight that dogs of different backgrounds and different breeds can do this work. People of different backgrounds can learn to become bounders, too, if they stop to listen, and remain open to the lessons each of our conservation detection dogs have taught us.

So, hope comes in many forms for us. And because we have so much hope, we founded a program centered around it, the Rogue Detection Teams. Ultimately, it is our hope that this methodology grows and develops with the welfare of dogs and wildlife everywhere so that more researchers believe in the abilities of the detection dog teams for wildlife conservation.

Since this March quest discovered an additional theme related to teaching and education, I would also like to share with you a sub link for Rogue Detection Teams related to education.   As they share on their web page:

We developed the Rogue Education Outreach Program to encourage students to think differently about science, and just like our RogueDogs do things differently, our hope is to inspire diversity in this fascinating and unique field.

Education — Rogue Detection Teams (roguedogs.org)

31.462734° N, -99.33304° E

I had the privilege of taking part in an interview for Books On Air Podcast with Suzanne Harris to share about Hope Has a Cold Nose. 

On behalf of the twenty-three co-authors of HHCN, for thirty-one lives per day, for

Hope

Hope Has A Cold Nose by Christine Hassing

42.38337° N, -85.95741° E

On behalf of Ginger and Kutana, may peace be in your heart.    May you always remember that making a difference for one is still a very big difference to make. 

People who really want to make a difference in the world usually do it, in one way or another. And I’ve noticed something about people who make a difference in the world: They hold the unshakable conviction that individuals are extremely important, that every life matters. They get excited over one smile. They are willing to feed one stomach, educate one mind, and treat one wound. They aren’t determined to revolutionize the world all at once; they’re satisfied with small changes. Over time, though, the small changes add up. Sometimes they even transform cities and nations, and yes, the world. – Beth Clark

Sincerely,

-Christine

P.S.

If you have enjoyed this month’s message, please pay it forward to others.  They can also subscribe to future emails by visiting www.christinehassing.com.   Encourage others to share what Hope Is.   I welcome sharing their input in future messages!   

P.S.S.  You can also find the links to Southeastern Guide Dogs and Rogue Detection Teams on my webpage HOPE LINKS – Christine Hassing

Namaste.’ 

Hello co-travelers who have joined me on this quest for what Hope Is!   I trust this finds your travels thus far have been enjoyable, inspirational, and rewarding. 

I have so much more to share with you this month! 

If you are new to our journey, let me offer a couple of tips for how to hike the distance with me.  I have been fortunate to take my time walking the path; approximately 30 days to be exact.  Just like the adventure of walking the Appalachian Trail, or the Pacific Crest Trail, or the Grand Italian Trail of 3, 832 miles, there is a rhythm and routine to break the distance into manageable miles.  Manageable miles to be kind to one’s body for the ability to go the duration.  To be fully present with the sights, smells, and sounds that surround the path.  To wholly experience the transformative opportunities that the journey offers.  

I’ve been fortunate to walk this path for 30 days.  You don’t have to walk the path in one sitting.  You certainly can if you want to.  I am confident you won’t negatively harm your body if you walk the journey all at once. (smile) I offer that you can read what will soon follow over a few days, or even over the next month until the next quest is sent to your inbox in March.  Honor you most of all in what feels best.  My only wish is that however you decide, it is a meaningful journey for you as you visit the locations of what

Hope Is.

52.132633 N     5.291266 E

In that way that every moment does not hold coincidence, each moment a puzzle piece that has a fit with future pieces, or with pieces already snapped in place, my quest continued when my phone rang on a Friday, not even an hour later after an enjoyable lunch with my mother. 

The caller is in the winter of her life, later nineties to be exact.  The caller is my friend.  She was calling to thank me for her bouquet of flowers I had sent to her in celebration of her birthday. I have been blessed only a few short years to have gained her friendship.  We met when I was introduced to her and her husband so that I could write their life stories. 

Their stories of immigrating to the United States shortly after WWII ended.  Soon after both had survived the brutalness of the war.  Eating a cookie that she had made for my visit to hear their stories took on a whole new meaning to me as I listened to what it was like to eat so little, if at all, for days.  For weeks.   To march thirty-five miles in the bitter winter cold with little food.  And little clothing.  With shoes that took on a whole new level of worn thin.  Eating that cookie that was made from her hands, that learned to bake from the generations before her.  Her mother.  Her grandmother.  Her great grandmother.  Admiration the tone to her voice, love the melody in which she spoke her story.    

Hope is

Perseverance.  Will.  Resilience.  Faith.

I asked my friend how she was doing, anxious to hear the tone in her voice that would accompany her words.  Would they match?  Would I hear her say I’m alright with tiredness?  Happiness?  Practicality?  Discouragement?  Peace? 

Well…I feel like I don’t know the world anymore, she replied.

Her answer caused me a momentary falter on my hopeful quest.  If my friend is saying this after experiencing chapters of life in which I cannot even begin to imagine, what does that say about the world now!  This thought the rock creating the reason my feet were stumbling.

We continued our dialogue as she shared that her family was doing well and asked about mine.  She asked about my writing.  (I am blessed with her unconditional encouragement!)  She asked about my travels.  I shared about my quest.  I asked her what Hope Is to her.

She shared that she lies in bed often praying and thinking about her life.  She has a photo by her bed of her family – children, grandchildren, great grandchildren – when they were younger.  There is much to be hopeful for, she exclaimed. 

Hope Is

In the next generations.

Hope is meaningful conversations with each child.   Once again, I could hear in my friend’s voice the beautiful tone of admiration and the melody of love.  And the sweet sound of pride.

My friend then shared about one of her friends who went to Kentucky to offer support to those now grieving loss after the tornado devastation.  My friend shared her friend’s experiences that her friend was among individuals who had lost everything and yet what these individuals were demonstrating most of all was so much hope for the future.   

Hope is

Perseverance.  Will.  Resilience.  Faith.

And Hope Is

Listening. Listening to others’ stories.  Listening to each other.  Offering listening.

Her friend couldn’t bring back things these individuals had lost.  But she could hand them dignity, empathy, and the value of being heard and seen. 

As I listened to my friend share, my heart full of gratitude to have gained our friendship as a puzzle piece to complete the picture of my life, I was reminded of my mom sharing her recent experience at the grocery store when we were sharing our lunch only an hour before my friend had called.

My mom went to the store to get saltine crackers and as she was going through the checkout line, the cashier asked her if someone was ill.  (I’m not sure about for you, but I grew up, as I think this cashier did, too, with saltine crackers the food to turn to when sick.)   My mom responded thankfully no, and then became the listener as the cashier shared about a sister’s illness.  My mom’s grace-filled comment to me was that she needed someone to hear her and I’m glad I could be that person. 

Hope Is

Unconditional listening.   

My friend planted a precious seed that Friday when she shared what Hope Is to her. 

During lunch that day with my mom we were reminiscing about a life changing event that we both experienced together when I was a young girl.   Though it wasn’t the first time we talked about this particular chapter of our lives, what my friend did was open my ears to hear differently as I reflected on what my mom had shared.  I started listening to my mom’s perspective not as her daughter, but as a life story listener-writer.  I began to see not through a daughter’s eyes, listening with a history shaped by and with her mom’s words.  I set aside my perceptions, learned biases, and thought patterns and started becoming curious to hear a woman’s life story filled with wisdom and experiences shaped by what was going on that influenced her perspectives, beliefs, biases, and thoughts.

I became someone from one generation wanting to preserve memories and ensure that I was doing what I could that my mom would see the hope in my generation paving the way for hope for the next ones.   

Hope Is

The meaningful narratives rich in lessons we can learn from and mine that we can help this brilliant, magnificent diamond we call life be the best shine it can be.

44.052155° N, -123.091194° E

My friend had mentioned the crisis in Kentucky. 

My quest would lead me to an organization that knows that crisis well. 

And the multiple crises associated with mass shootings.

A collapsed condominium.

A mud slide.

Raging fires in California.

HOPE AACR – Hope Animal-Assisted Crisis Response

HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response – Comfort in Times of Crisis (hopeaacr.org)

Hope Is

Serving others in a time of need.

A quote by one of the HOPE AACR board of directors.  

A quote embodied by every extraordinary response team I had the sacred privilege of meeting and talking with on my quest.

I first learned of HOPE AACR through a special friend who is a team with Sunny and with Oreo, two therapy canines certified to bring smiles and comfort to children, senior citizens, college students, and those who are healing from past traumas.   Along the journey of my friend, Sunny, and I co-presenting the healing power of canines to audiences (before Sunny’s little brother Oreo was part of the family), my friend and Sunny began working on their certification to become a crisis response team part of the HOPE AACR organization.   Fast forward to a few months ago and I had the privilege of being one of the sponsors for HOPE AACR to hold their annual member education event.  

Like the quote by Elizabeth Gilbert reads in her book Eat, Pray, Love, “I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems…long ago…a circle in the sand, exactly around the spot…standing right now. I was never not coming here.  This was never not going to happen”.  That I would find HOPE AACR on my quest for what Hope Is was calling to me before I met the wonderful teams.

47.57805° N, -122.21128° E

Hope Is

Giving back to community.

This is what hope is for Connie and Zelda, a crisis response team who were first inspired to be so when a school shooting happened in the state where Connie and Zelda live. 

I am only a parent of fur and pawed children so I cannot begin to know all that a parent feels when hearing the news of an unimaginable violation of a space in which they are trusting that their children will be safe and that the only fear their children might focus on is will I pass the test? Or will she say “yes” if I ask her to on a date?  I cannot imagine what a parent feels when their children learn fear for their lives.  

For Connie, a mother of two children who were teenagers at the time of the horrific news for the state in which she lives, her choice became how to provide comfort and serve a community in need.

Hope Is

Compassion.

As I listened to Connie share her story, I was remembering the Cherokee Native American legend about the two wolves, and which one is fed.   Feed such things as fear and anger.  Or feed such things as kindness, empathy, humility, and compassion.  What I kept thinking was how Connie and Zelda found a way to see and see again.  What I mean by that is there is a burning wish that school shootings cease and there is a multitude of perspectives on how to bring these to an end.  Each perspective striving in their own way to bring about what all perspectives have in common which is end the devastating shootings.  The perspectives fighting the rage of an act with the rage for change.   Rage begetting more rage.    

From my perspective, what Connie and Zelda do, along with their colleague teams also part of HOPE AACR is trying to defuse rage.   They try to insert compassion, offer nonjudgment through unconditionally listening fur ears, and open the doorway to begin not only a healing journey for each individual person, but for a community collectively.   That rage won’t beget more rage, but that the stages of grief and healing can eventually beget meaningful change.

Hope Is

Feeling the sadness, and

Witnessing the moment there is an ever so slight and gentle lift.

Where HOPE AACR provides comfort is in helping take pain away for people to deal with their grief and pain. 

Connie shared about deployments.  Suicides.  Shootings.  A landslide.   It is some of the most meaningful work we do.   It can be very sad and very intense; we get so much more out of it than we are giving.   When deployed to a location, support is given not only to victims, families, and communities.  Support is given to first responders and not only in care for their experiences with trauma and grief.  Connie increased my awareness when she shared that a first responder who may be serving from another state away from home gets to feel a reduction in homesickness by petting one of the crisis response canines. Zelda, for example, offers normalization and a reminder of these first responders’ home lives. 

Hope Is

Petting a canine.

Petting a dog increases oxytocin in the person, and in the dog.  It is a chemical that helps us feel

Love and Hope.

45.989100° N, -83.914600° E

Hope Is

Being the one at the end of the leash.

Hope Is

How time is spent serving between the dashes.

My quest led me next to Nick.  And Cricket.  And Blizzard.  And Kayak.  And Ischgl.  And Katie Lynn. 

Adorable, sweet, Cricket is in training, not yet certified as an AACR member, in infancy as well in gaining her therapy certification.   Cricket is the one to now carry the torch forward Kayak’s role as the 3^rd portion of the Trifecta that makes Nick and his wife a whole team serving their community with therapy dog support.  Cricket the one to now place paw prints on those in need when crisis strikes.

Before Cricket is Blizzard.  One and one-half year-old Blizzard has passed his therapy dog certification and is now in training to be a HOPE AACR dog this summer.

Before Blizzard was Kayak.  Until lymphoma became the stop sign for Kayak, her indication that her work was now done, and she had done exceptionally well fulfilling her purpose for this life.  

Kayak had a sister named Ischgl.   Ischgl had been serving her purpose as a leader dog for a blind friend of Nick and his wife.  Then Ischgl became a therapy dog and HOPE AACR certified in service beside Nick, his wife, Kayak, and Katie Lynn.  Ischgl is the senior member of the Trifecta now and continues to serve well as a HOPE dog for those experiencing crises and disasters.  Once a leader for those who needed additional sight; now Ischgl is serving those whose sight has been blinded by the pain of trauma and loss.    

I anticipate Kayak and Katie Lynn have wonderful conversations now sitting across the Rainbow Bridge, remembering the many lives they both touched for the better.

I anticipate Kayak and Katie Lynn routinely express their gratitude to their oldest brother, Gunner, all one-hundred-thirty-five pounds of him, for he was the reason Nick and his wife began their therapy dog service journey.   Their big brother had passed away from lymphoma before Gunner had a chance to join the ranks of therapy and crisis response and Nick’s home was now too quiet and too empty.

A street fair with a booth about therapy dogs, a visit at a rescue for Golden Retrievers, and an introduction to a 3-year-old golden with only three legs led Nick and his wife to HOPE AACR   This 3-year-old whose fourth leg was amputated when she had bone cancer as a puppy served eleven years as none other than the wonderful Katie Lynn. 

Katie Lynn served up until the final days of her life on Earth.  An abandoned puppy who once had the world try to teach her hopelessness the first eighteen months of her life, a young fur ball who lived a rescued life until she met Nick and his wife, lived until she was fourteen.  Katie Lynn had brought hope through forty deployments to schools for teacher and student deaths.  She brought hope to the Navy Yard Shooting victims in September 2013. 

While on Deployment in Washington D.C., Katie Lynn was approached by a woman elegantly dressed all in black, her face pained in deep anguish.  This dear in pain soul stroked Katie without saying a word.  Her hands caressing Katie.  Katie doing what Katie always did best, sitting without judgment and giving someone the ability to feel love.  Without words spoken, Nick witnessed the anguish slowly soften in the face of this dear woman.  At a certain point in which time moves only according to the heart, this woman got up and walked away. 

Nick had the privilege of learning a chapter of this dear woman’s story a couple of years later.  At the moment this woman came to Katie Lynn, she had just returned from the seventh funeral of victims of the mass shooting.  As this dear soul shared to Nick, Katie Lynn gave me the will to go on.  

Hope Is

Paying forward the will received to give another the will to carry forward.

This dear woman further shared with Nick that Katie Lynn had inspired her and her husband to rescue a dog.  The first night they had brought the dog home, the dog put his head on the pillow next to this woman’s husband and in that moment, two more souls found the ability to go on.

Hope Is

The circle of life.

Loss through cancer led Nick and his wife to the next chapters of their service-oriented hearts.  Kayak may have only been seven while Katie Lynn was fourteen.   But in the dash between when they were each born and when they each left Earth, they fulfilled purposes to give all whose lives they touched

The wills to go on.

It’s the circle of life and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, ‘till we find our place, on the path unwinding – from The Lion King

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Steve and Henry. 

https://www.instagram.com/henry_the_therapy_dog/

Hope Is

Something for people to grab onto. 

California fires.  The Las Vegas Shooting.  Hurricane Harvey in Texas.  

Pediatric oncology wards

Peer support work with the sheriff’s department and first responders.

To name only a few. 

Over 725 calls to serve.

And they’ve only just started. 

For each call to service Steve and Henry receive is one more lifeline of hope tossed into the waves of crisis and the aftermath of trauma and grief. 

Henry was one of eleven brothers and sisters.  When Steve and his wife looked down into the sea of golden fur balls, they were greeted by mischief, those scared of their own shadows, and one peace maker.  

The peace maker came home with Steve and his wife. 

In the first six months of his life, Henry lived well the meaning of his name, ruler of the home.  Or perhaps better said, ruler of his future service teammate, Steve.  Fast forward to puppy class, an instructor saying your dog would make a great therapy dog, a father in-law’s cardiac rehabilitation that included therapy dogs as part of the rehab process that sparked Steve’s attention, and well, as they say, history is now in the making.  Therapy dog certified.  HOPE AACR certified.   Peer Support Specialist. 

In listening to Steve’s story, that included his retirement from serving as a first responder for thirty-five years, I was reminded of a time I was part of an eighteen-month assignment as a grand juror.  During orientation a federal attorney shared his story that included why he enjoyed his work.  As a federal attorney he could present for right or wrong; he did not have to represent someone to the best of his ability even if he knew they might be guilty.  

Hope Is

The ability to fulfill a life of service with the freedom to not be required to judge.

Steve still bravely and compassionately leans into the experiences that most would find hard to expose themselves, too.  I still see death and destruction.  His calling to serve during the most horrific or sorrowful times of need is an essence of Steve.  Yet, now, he can be called to the scenes of crisis and not have to take in the surroundings for guilt or evidence; with his unconditionally listening and loving teammate, Steve can bring compassion, acceptance, and

A lifeline of hope.

Hope Is

Less as more as a handler.

Steve and Henry responded to one of the California fires that burned down a whole town in a day.  Henry the leader innately knowing when someone is in need led Steve around an old store that had been set up as the crisis relief center.  As Henry led Steve past a partition, Henry immediately veered left and walked up to a gentleman sitting down.  The gentleman never looked up but began telling his story to Henry.  His story of physically pushing stalled cars out of the way to make it home to rescue his wife 8-months pregnant.  His story of his fifteen-year-old dog in the truck with him who did not survive the stress.   As if Steve was not standing there, this gentleman spoke his most vulnerable heart to Henry’s unconditional presence.  Then, this gentleman rose, in true gentleman fashion he reached up and tipped his hat and simply said have a good day.

Hope Is

No words needed to give someone the lifeline they need.

Hope Is

Simply catching the tears

40.016872° N, -105.279625° E

Hope Is

Grace

Grace in one’s own healing journey.

Grace with a cold nose and pawed feet.

What can I do to support anyone who also experiences the loss of a child?

Yet again my quest found me receiving the sacred privilege of talking with another HOPE AACR team.  Lee and Grace. 

A serving heart was already nudged to think what can I do to help?  The headlines read WALDO CANYON FIRE DESTROYS.  SHOT AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD.   BLACK FOREST FIRE DEVASTATES. 

Hope Is

There must be something I can do to help!

And then the unimaginable.  The unnatural order of what we plan for in life.  What we hope for in life.

Lee cannot walk in anyone else’s shoes, for as she wisely says everyone grieves differently.  Yet, Lee’s empathic and gracious heart knows grief.  For eight hours, in which at the end of those hours Lee stood at the crossroads between life before and never ever again to be the same, Lee wished for two things most of all.  Lee wished her son to live without the need for the life support machine she was listening to every second of those 28,800 seconds that filled up 8 hours.  And Lee wished she could hug a dog. 

But no dog was at the hospital. 

Only Grief sat by her side.

And it was not meant to be that her son could continue to live.

Hope Is

Holding on to the tiniest of threads as the nudge becomes a scream, I have to do something to help!

Enter Grace.

In the form of pawed feet, a cold nose, as a trainee through the prison rehabilitation program. 

Lee didn’t pick out Grace’s name.  It had already been given to her. 

In that nothing is coincidence way life magically flows.

Hope Is

Giving meaning to tragedy.

Lee and Grace’s certification as a therapy team leads them to such places as hospitals and to Safe Passage (an organization who serves children victims of violent crimes).  As a HOPE AACR team, Lee and Grace have been deployed to shooting tragedies and traumatic aftermath of devastating fires.  For seven weeks Lee and Grace served a grieving community grappling with the loss of 10 lives in the Boulder King Scoopers shooting.  Through Lee’s coordination, twenty-five HOPE teams responded with empathy, support, and unconditional listening and care in the form of fur and pawed feet.   

Lee and Grace responded to another tragedy when six lives were lost in a shooting.  Lee and Grace responded to a community in need when the Marshall Fire destroyed 1000 homes.   Some of those homes contained pets.

Hope Is

Focusing on how one can help instead of focusing on feeling helpless.

Lee and Grace responded to the victims of the fire with grateful hearts they could help bring comfort.  Lee didn’t think about her own evacuation from her home, a home sitting at the edges of the raging flames.  Fortunately, Lee’s home was spared. 

Lee and Grace are able to help others on their grieving journeys.  Including attendance at funerals where Grief sits in every seat.  As others find healing, Lee finds healing on her own journey.  Lee found a way to breathe again with the gift of Grace; Lee found a way to turn the loss around to bring positive gains.   If even one life now deeply grieving can be turned around with Grace, then Lee’s son’s life was not lost in vain. 

Hope Is

Guardian angels

As Lee shared her story, I listened with the ears of someone who believes that space does not separate us from those we love, on this Earth and those above.  I am someone who believes that we are given signs and messages if we choose to see and hear.  Lee shared a time that she and Grace were called to attend a funeral of a young man who had been killed in a car accident.  Lee gave me the gift of sharing her heart when she talked of how hard it was to say yes to attend. As Lee viewed each picture of this young man, the face she felt was looking back was her son. 

And then Lee felt a release, as if she was being wrapped in her son’s embrace and he was communicating all is ok, mom.   Like so many other times, Grace was there to soak up the tears of those in attendance.   In this moment, as Lee was simply holding on to the leash for Grace to do her work, grace was given to Lee.   

Hope Is

Offering hope to others that they can find happiness again.

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Hope Is

Life.

Hope provides life, as wisely shared by Raquel and Bungee and Pickles and Ruffles.  Three cold noses, twelve pawed feet, and two hands at the end of three leashes. 

Raquel shared how when being trained for suicide, hopeless is the key word.  Someone may experience barely living to living an extraordinary life.  It can vary day to day, moment by moment. 

Hope Is

Volunteering with dogs to provide more hope to people during or after a traumatic event.  Or just on a normal day.

Hope Is

Living life like Ruffles. 

In the moment.  Living with her heart.   Our heads get in the way of hearing from our hearts.  For Ruffles, it’s all heart. 

Hope Is

Living life like Bungee. 

He makes people laugh.

Hope Is

Unconditional love.   By the therapy/ crisis response canines.  For the therapy / crisis response canines. 

Raquel shared about the responsibility as a handler to always have awareness.  Of one ‘s own resilience on a given day to absorb the pain and trauma of others.  And of the canine in service.  Do I have resilience today at my end of the leash and does the dog want to do this on their end of the leash?    One needs to stay mindful and aware enough to not make [the dogs] do something they don’t want to do, even if the handler wants to do it with all their heart.   

Bungee, Pickles, and Ruffles tell Raquel what jobs they want to do.  They know by the color Raquel wears what job is ahead.  One of them doesn’t eagerly run for the vehicle if it is an assisted living assignment.  Another might prefer the elementary kids when they are receiving their vaccinations.   A symbiotic relationship of give-give, listen-listen, honor-honor.  Or I should say give-give-give-give, listen-listen-listen-listen, honor-honor-honor-honor, for they are an extraordinary team of four working together to generate nothing but positive energy for

Living life. 

Hope Is

Having a positive impact while on Earth. 

Not by avoiding the negative that occurs on Earth.  Such as when mudslides or a shooting occurs.  Or a mountain rescue is necessary.  Or the opportunity presents itself to focus on suicide prevention or tend to first responder well-being.  But by showing up when the negative does occur to move the moment for someone from barely living to

Taking steps toward living an extraordinary life.

-29.046185° N, 25.06288° E

Along this month’s quest journey, I received an email from the Fetzer Institute.  Among what they were sharing included a link to listen to an interview with Desmond Tutu. (https://onbeing.org/programs/remembering-desmond-tutu/)   It was an interview that had been conducted in 2010.  The invitation to listen to the interview included who inspired us with his example of ubuntu, his deep faith, and abiding hope.  

Did someone say hope?  (smile)

As I listened to his laughter as he answered questions and shared his perspective, I was reminded of reading his book No Future without Forgiveness when I was earning my MA in Organizational Leadership.  I started to remember reading about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as one of the most significant healing steps taken for South Africa Apartheid.  I remembered how this commission had as a primary mission to hold the space for people to share their stories without judgment, no matter the magnitude of the story as the one trying to forgive or the one seeking forgiveness. 

I recalled that I had used quotes from his book for papers I had to write.  What quotes had resonated with me I wondered?  They included: Justice, restorative justice, is being served when efforts are being made to work for healing, for forgiving, and for reconciliation. (pp. 55).  It involves trying to understand the perpetrators and so have empathy, to try to stand in their shoes and appreciate the sort of pressures and influences that might have conditioned them. (pp. 271).  Believers say that we might describe most of human history as a quest for that harmony, friendship, and peace for which we appear to have been created (pp. 264).  It struck me that there were many people walking around who looked so normal but who were in fact carrying a burden of anguish and grief (pp. 101). 

I listened to the interview and heard his wisdom, if you’re devoid of hope, then roll over and disappear quietly.   At no point will evil and injustice and oppression and all of the negative things have the last word.  At the center of this existence is a heart beating with love.

Hope Is

Forgiving

Listening to another’s story

Never losing faith that the last words to be had will contain hope and love.

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Next was the travels to a TEDx webinar titled Finding Hope in Hopeless Times.  The webinar featured author Wajahat Ali, sharing about his book Go Back to Where You Came From: and other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become an American.   During the webinar, Wajahat shared about when he was preparing to give his TEDx talk The Case for Having Kids, having just learned that his three-year-old daughter had just been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. 

During this webinar, Wajahat shared how he moved between imaging the worst and striving to believe his daughter could be cured.   He would play out in his mind what it would be like to grief the death of his daughter.   He would play out in his mind the image of her growing up.  

Hope Is

Three Actions

Tie your camel first.   Translation.  Focus on what you can control; let go of the rest.

Invest in Joy.    It is like a muscle that needs to be exercised and developed.  Be disciplined.  Commit to it.

Invest in Hope.   Write your own story; be your own narrator.  Find the plot twist.  When a page turns, a better story can come.

I refuse to give up.  I refuse to give that inheritance to my children.

Two years later, Wajahat shared with us, the audience, these three actions. 

And he shared how his daughter is now five years old, a thriving happy, fully in remission child growing up.

42.40321° N, -86.27262° E

I will leave you with this last visit on our travels to seek what Hope Is. 

https://www.al-van.org/

Al Van Humane Society.   An organization that gives hope to hundreds of cats and dogs every year.

Hope Is

to work and support beings that won’t be able to return the favor.

Hmmmm…it seems to be a theme as we have traveled these past weeks.

To be of service to others at their greatest time of need. 

When dogs or cats come through our Intake Center, we have no idea of their outcome through our shelter. All we have is hope that they will find their perfect home and be able to rest easily where they are safe and warm. I would say with confidence that hope is something that gets each of us through every single day, especially the more difficult days. – Stephanie, Al-Van Humane Society

42.38337° N, -85.95741° E

Of course, Ginger and Kutana always like to add their messages to each monthly communication.  This month they send you wishes that your next few weeks offer you relaxation and contentment. 

And of course, most of all, hope. 

The greatest thing you will ever give to the world is your commitment to leave what you find in better condition than the way you found it. Leave a single light in a place where there was once darkness so those coming behind you may see further and begin where you left. — Tonny K. Brown

Sincerely,

-Christine

P.S.

If you have enjoyed this month’s message, please pay it forward to others.  They can also subscribe to future emails by visiting www.christinehassing.com.   Encourage others to share what Hope Is.   I welcome sharing their input in future messages!   

Namaste.’ 

Dear All,

Every life deserves a certain amount of dignity, no matter how poor or damaged the shell that carries it. – Rick Bragg

Her authenticity includes a tail that is meant to position itself in a straight line directly out from her body when she is on point at a bird.  Or sometimes an occasional squirrel.  Or a turtle.  {smile} Yet there are times in which her tail points straight up into the air, as if a flag waving.  Every time it does, it is because Kutana is happy.  

It could be something she is doing.  Like discovering something new in her yard that moves inside a hard shell and then stops moving as soon as a friendly, curious, VERY energetic Kutana  with very fast moving paws starts investigating by flipping this hard shelled new “toy” on its back, picking it up in her mouth, and then dropping it down an embankment before I can get Kutana’s attention with “No!” and rescue what I am now certain is a dizzy from somersaulting panicked painter turtle!  

Sometimes her tail wags simply by hearing Goooooood gggiiirrrrlllll!  I can see her body fill with pride, and then I see the wheels in her mind start to turn as she starts to hurriedly look for what else she can do to repeat what she just did so that she can receive another Goooooood gggiiirrrrl!  

Her sister Ginger adds a little sway to her happy tail wag when she hears me say my version of “good girl” to her.  Yes sir, she’s my baby. No sure, I don’t mean maybe!  Since the first night Ginger came home after rescuing us when we met her at a shelter, I have sing-songed these words of endearment to her.   Ginger does something else along with her tail wag and sway.  She turns her head and gives me a smile.  

Pride.  

Dignity. 

A feeling of being worthy. 

A feeling of worthiness we give others.

In the words we say. 

And the actions we take.

A couple of days ago I was spending time with a dear friend, and we were talking about…life.  {smile} More specifically, one particular portion of our conversation was about what gets said when someone passes from this lifetime.  My dear friend wisely shared how when she hears He or she was so young! she wants to say, no, he or she was seventy-four years old.  How about let’s say instead what a good life that person lived!  How about if we say they had been hurting for some time; thankfully, the pain they were in has now ended and they are in peace.   Let’s give them dignity for the life they lived. 

Perhaps her words resonated because of my starting place in listening to my dear friend.   I have this perspective that how we hear others speak is based on where our hearts our starting from in listening to what is being said.  

My heart was already starting from a place of giving worth to a life lived.

Even if, or especially if, that life ended in pain.

A few weeks ago, I received a text from another dear friend sharing with me that she had just received news that one of her friends/ coworkers had taken her own life.  First my heart went out to my dear friend.  For many reasons.  One, that my dear friend was experiencing yet another sorrowful moment.  From my vantage point, she had been having her share lately.   Two, I could only imagine what it was to walk in her shoes of shock.  Of sadness.  Of helplessness. 

And a small step of gratitude.  And thankfulness. 

That the news was not about her son who journeys with P.T.S.D. 

I have known there have been times in the past she was afraid that his pain would become too much for him to bear.

And then I went to bed thinking about my friend’s friend – a veteran who had reached her end of hope.

I woke up the next morning thinking about the veteran who had reached her end of hope.

I kept thinking about this someone I had never met who I am certain lived an extraordinary life.   Yet was she being remembered with dignity for all that she had been before the last millimeter of the dash between her years (birth – death) contained the letters s u i c i d e?

Or was she now being remembered for her brokenness?    Would her legacy now become a fulfillment of what she may have most felt when she was alive?   If she had felt fragmented and unable to feel a belonging with the world, would her memory in the minds and hearts of others now be stamped with the certainty she was damaged and “different’?   

The place from which our hearts start from in how we listen.   And in the actions we take. 

To find ways to give dignity to the brokenness people feel before they reach the end of hope.  Like pawed feet and cold noses who unconditionally accept without judgment and walk beside veterans on their healing journeys with P.T.S.D.  

And if we learn of someone who reached their end of hope, let us give them dignity by looking past the last millimeter of the dash before their death to compassionately celebrate the extraordinary life they lived. 

There is nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness – John Connolly

Sincerely,

-Christine

For an interview featuring Hope Has a Cold Nose, please tune in to Channel 8, Monday, June 14^th at this link:

Welcome to The Authors Show® | The Authors Show (wnbnetworkwest.com)

If you have enjoyed this month’s message, please pay it forward to others.  They can also subscribe to future emails by visiting www.christinehassing.com     Namaste.’ 

For the audio version:

https://anchor.fm/christine-hassing/embed/episodes/Erin-and-Lucy—A-Story-Of-Hope-evkmc7

Dear All,

Fear spreads quickly.   So does hope   – Author Unknown   

The words displayed on a sign as I traveled through the airport recently.  Fear spreads quickly.

So does hope.

It is my second time traveling since each of us came to an individually personal, yet also collective on the grandest of scales, crossroads in which life split to the left in the direction of what we had known and to the right in a direction of no longer the same.   

For many, if not all of us, coming to a pandemic crossroads is not the first life-altering experience.  Sure, it might be easy to react with the thought certainly not of this magnitude.  And yet, if we practice what the cold-nosed co-authors of HHCN do well, which is not to judge or compare, the greatest magnitude of impact is what is happening for that person experiencing a stand at the juncture between how life was known “before” and life “never to be the same”.

Recently I was blessed to write an additional story of hope in response to my request:

Calling all Stories of Hope (christinehassing.com)

In a few moments you will be able to read about Erin and Lucy, a story of the greatest unconditional love.  Of profound grief.  Of courageous resilience.  A story of hope and healing to cascade ripples far and wide.  A dear stranger who gave me the sacred gift of trusting me with her heart, that her story could be the pages in someone else’s survival guide. 

Her crossroads moment, not just once.  Not twice.  But three times.  Once, when she heard I’m sorry, the results are positive.  She has cancer.  A second time when she let go for her tiny thirty-five-pound best friend to become her guardian angel above.  A third time when she heard the words positive and cancer.    

Not all crossroad moments are the mile markers of our pain, trauma, sorrow, despair, or grief.  Crossroad moments are getting the call that at long last the wait is over, and training begins next week with

Hope in the form of a cold nose. 

A service dog team in the making about to begin.

Crossroad moments are also when hands-on experience reminds us that kindness to strangers still runs as rampant as the requirement to wear a mask and remain 6-feet apart.  

On one of my flights, I was addressing postcards that feature Hope Has a Cold Nose to continue to spread the word for twenty-three extraordinary co-authors who certainly know crossroad moments!   I also love to leave positive notes for strangers, including stewards and stewardesses, so I decided to cascade two positives.   One was to write on a postcard my appreciation for the stewardess taking such good care of us all after one of her significant crossroads moments when she couldn’t work and is now working in a whole new way.   The other was to recruit her in paying forward hope by having her tell at least one other person about HHCN. 

I left the now filled out postcard on my seat and started down the corridor after deplaning.  Suddenly a very kind gentleman rushed up behind me to let me know that I had dropped one of my postcards and it remained on the seat.  As my eyes smiled, his eyes smiled in return as he said with a knowing tone, or maybe it was intentional.    As I was confirming for this kind stranger that it was intentional, I heard another sweet shout from behind hey, ma’am, you dropped this, as a second dear stranger holding the postcard was trying to get my attention.   As I laughed and told her I had left the postcard on the seat on purpose, bless this dear stranger’s heart, she immediately starts to turn with the thought she would push back against the deplaning crowd and put it back in the seat.   I stopped her, for at that split second juncture, what I knew most of all is that the postcard was now in the hands of the person who was meant to read it.   And I let her know that as I thanked her for her kindness in looking out for me.

Yes, fear spreads quickly.   We are exposed to external messaging on a continual basis that tries to fuel the ways in which we should fear.  But, ah, oh so much so what also spreads quickly is

Hope. 

Every second in life offers a crossroads moment in which we can allow life to be what was and no longer the same.   

It is in how we choose to hear and see.

There are two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle.   – Albert Einstein  

Sincerely,

-Christine

Calling all Stories of Hope (christinehassing.com)

ERIN AND LUCY

Sometimes I just look up, smile, and say: “I know that was you, thank you!” – Author Unknown

            Of course it is mom!  Each and every time, and even the times you are not looking up, but I am beside you just the same.  When it was my time to leave Earth, you whispered in my ear “come back to me, soon, please!”   Making you happy was always the best part of being me. 

So, your guardian angel I am, your reminder you could when you were not sure you had the strength to fight.   I knew you did, for I knew that though you, too, experienced cancer, it was not your time to take flight.  You still had purpose to fulfill on Earth, and I hear you ponder what that may be.  Oh, my dear mom, if only you could see you as I do, your light the world needs.

Hey mom, speaking of your journey with breast cancer there is something I’d like to share with you if I may.   I will forewarn you I might get a little chocked up in what I wish to say.  I was so proud of you the day you helped me end my pain.  It was a doozy mom, the pain from the cancer collapsing my rib cage.   Barely two years as your teacher about how to love unconditionally.   You are a quick study, mom, learning that unconditional love isn’t always about what – or who – we can keep.   Sometimes the greatest acts of love are in letting go of what we want or need for the greatest good of the one we love more than anything. 

I could feel pieces of your heart cracking and breaking as the reality of letting me go was starting to penetrate like a stabbing knife.   I was trying to reach the core of your heart with the whisper from my soul “it will be alright”.  I wanted to stop your pain as much as you wanted to help my pain go away, too.   We have always been in sync like that, me and you.   Wanting the best for each other ahead of our own wishes or needs.  And feeling the exact same thing as the other at the same time – then again, that is how soul mates are, don’t you think?

A part of me really wanted to stay with you.   It felt a little too early to leave – after all, I was only two.  My soul knew it was time, though, having fulfilled the purpose I was meant to achieve.   I was only meant to be with you a short time, a paving the way or a planting of a seed. 

We both know one of those seeds was to love the color pink so that when you were having a fighting match with breast cancer you would see pink and know I was walking beside you on your journey.  You know – that looking up, smiling, and knowing thing you mentioned in the beginning.  Knowing that space does not separate me from you, you from me.   

I entered life with my soul knowing I had a big responsibility.   I may have been small in size, but the mission I carried was mighty.  I had made an agreement with your soul of what I was supposed to teach.    My soul was so excited that I would be leading you to your new beginnings.   I think of it like a baby swan who is nestled inside the egg in safe keep.    Until a certain moment from somewhere deep this little swan decided it needs to break free.  It isn’t easy, the pecking away at the encased shell of armor that holds this swan in hiding.   Sure, for you and me, we think an eggshell is fragile, but think about if we had an equally fragile still forming beak.   For this little swan, it is a very big endeavor when it decides to step into the light. 

Equivalent to a beautiful soul who journeys through biopsies, radiation, and chemotherapy to bravely, boldly, and radiantly step into flourishing with life.

Mom, my soul was excited, but I have to say.  The canine in me had a moment in which I wanted to stay.   I guess that is another way us soul mates feel exactly the same way.  

When you whispered, “wait for me at the bridge”, for a split second I wanted to shout, “come with me”.   I thought it a time or two, also, when you were walking the darkest moments of your cancer journey.   My soul knew it was all happening as it was supposed to, as I know your soul knew it too, at least somewhere deep.   Yet, to be inhabiting these vessels of fur and humanness to experience life is not always easy.   Mom, I gotta tell you, up here as Guardian Angel does bring a level of simplicity.    But, then again, I wouldn’t trade my time on Earth I had with you for anything! 

 Life – and unconditional love – work in mysterious and yet perfect ways.   We cannot now the purest, deepest, greatest, most compassionate and uplifting love if we don’t experience what it means to lose.    We cannot know faith, trust, courage, strength, or hope, either, if we do not know what it is to be afraid, doubt, and uncertainty, too.  

Mom, I never did ask you how you picked my name.  Then again, there could have been no other name in that nothing is coincidence way.   Lucy means “Light”, and mom, your name means “Peace”.   Soul mates who represent light and peace – exactly what the world needs! 

I may be an angel not readily seen by anyone but you, but that doesn’t mean that together we can’t still be a team in what we do.  Mom, I think we had to crumble and shatter the foundation we knew so that I could help you build anew.  Your grief and your cancer journey hold wisdom for others in what they might go – or are going – through.   An entire world has felt a crumbling of their foothold, and you know what it is to lose that which meant the most to you.   

Lead the way mom…lead people through.  

            Mom, please never forget that I am – and will always be – your best friend by your side.  Anytime you wonder, just look up, smile, and yep, it’s me each and every time. 

If you have enjoyed this story, please pay it forward.  That is how the ripples of hope cascade.    Namaste’.

Audio Version of Jack and Charlotte

Dear Readers.  

Dear Co-Authors,

I love that you are my person, and I am yours, that whatever door we will come to, we will open it together. – A.R. Asher  

In the March 26^th blog, I shared a link at the end calling to co-authors for stories of hope and healing, that together we could cast ripples far and wide of hope.  That together we could be the pages in someone else’s survival guide. 

Calling all Stories of Hope (christinehassing.com)

I am honored to bring you the first story.   It is my privilege to retell an inspiring story that is not absent of pain, trauma, sorrow, despair…or grief.  But it is because of these things that you will read a moving story of healing, hope, and unconditional love.  

JACK AND CHARLOTTE

Mom, I have many proud moments when it comes to you.  Yet, there are two that especially shine through.  One is when you and I took our 430-mile Appalachian Trail journey in 2019.   The way you hiked up those steep hills, especially the moments when you doubted your capability.  I knew you could do it, even if you did not believe it at the time.   After all, I have been blessed to witness you make much steeper climbs.   I am convinced there isn’t a mountain too steep for you.   One of the things I love about you most, mom, is you don’t always know that to be true. 

It is the nature of your humbleness and your large heart for others in need.  Always a story of someone struggling more than you might have, your certainty.  I am proud of you, too, mom, for your generosity.   You do not ask anything in return of anyone you assist, except maybe that they pay forward assistance when another is struggling.  

You could choose to be cautious to assist, hypervigilance your gift from your military training.   You could choose to be leery of offering support, knowing well that trust is a precious commodity.  A commodity that can be shattered quite easily.  Yet, you use another gift to guide your way.   You in-tune to that inner voice to tell you if all is ok.

Mom, there is another moment I am especially proud of you.  It is the night you whispered, “it is your choice, Jack, in what you would like to do”.   Um…mom…forgive my pausing.  I get a little chocked up when I think about this chapter in our story.   See mom, I have known since you and I became a team that you whole-heartedly loved me.   But that night when I was sick, and you thought I was dying.  Well, to offer me the choice to stay or go spoke of the greatest love that can be given to another – trust me I know.  Mom, you put me ahead of your own heart with your unconditional love. 

That is what makes us a really great team.  I for you, and you for me.  What is best for each other is our top priority.   –Written by Jack, October 2020

Life’s funny, wonderous, heart-gripping, miraculous, exhilarating, adventurous flow.  It brings the sweet joy of birth, and it brings the sweet sorrow of letting go.   In the middle of our first breath and our last breath are all the blessed moments we choose our response to the currents in this river of life.  Will we choose to keep paddling with the current one stroke at a time?  Or fiercely paddle against the current’s natural direction, only we individually can decide. 

Life’s beautiful, steep, majestic, sometimes dark, splendid, stormy, itchy, biting lonely path we may find ourselves walking.  It can test our resilience, our will, and our hope leading our mind to a I am done certainty.   It can also lead us to clarity, forgiveness, peace, and gratitude.  Yes, to finding gratitude, too.  If we never climb the steepest hills, we would miss this breathtaking scenery sprawling ahead for miles our eyes now see.  We would miss that inside feeling from somewhere deep that has just proven our strength of being and done is no longer in our vocabulary.  Or if we never have known the darkest nights, we could not feel the warmth of the sun now penetrating to our bones as it whispers, always the birth of a new day.    We would have missed the journey to the greatest place we can travel to for the greatest gain.  

To know oneself, and to embrace one’s light and shadow sides unconditionally.  Well, all that I can simple say is that is where one finds the secret to living.  Flourish, thrive, keep taking one step forward no matter what the moment is bringing.  Life is beautiful and traumatic and a gift and ours to choose believing impossible or possibility.  

 I once knew the intention I held many nights in a row that sleep would come permanently.    Impossible was being a very best friend to me.   Hopeless was excited when it was time to call it a day.   Hopeless was always disgruntled when Morning knocked, and I didn’t turn it away.   Don’t get me wrong, I cursed Morning every single time it appeared and gave me the choice to rise.  Yet, I am grateful that my soul was stronger than the emotional and mental pain I felt at the time.  Oh, so grateful, indeed, my soul desired life.

Our first breath, our last breath, and all the moments in between.  Here is the other aspect about life’s flow, at least how I believe.   There is not only one birth that takes place in our life and death is not an ending.  Perhaps this is now where you are raising an eyebrow and starting to question, what does Charlotte mean? 

Do you know that expression people say, shaken to my core when they describe an experience that scared them in some way?   I like to think of the analogy of an egg or a cocoon.  You know, where there is something inside that reaches a point it is time to break through.  A caterpillar reaches a point it is time to burst forth and spread wings as a butterfly.   Or the duckling that reaches the time to peck through the shell so that it can start growing its wings for flight. 

Each of us as human beings are cocooned in the safety of our innocence, even if only for a short time.   We also retreat into a cocoon of protection if the outside world becomes harsh and unkind.  If we experience something traumatic, we may build a shell around ourselves to try to feel safe.  Cocoons and shells are shields of armor and our defense against the perceived enemies we face.  It is inside these havens we then must choose if we wish to push through into the open or stay inside where we cannot be seen.   If we make the choice to push through, it is a rebirthing.   For who comes out of the cocoon is now much more than who was curled up tight inside.  A butterfly is still a caterpillar, once having legs to crawl now has wings to fly.

Earlier I noted when sharing about the moments in between that I do not view death as an ending.   Please do not misunderstand that I make light of death, and its aftermath of grief.  Please don’t think I am communicating that death does not bring profound sorrow or that losing someone or something dearest to us is easy.   I share my belief, thanks in large part to my upbringing.  I share based on what I have experienced through my own losing of those dear to me.  I share that you may find comfort in your own story if a chapter in yours includes mourning for something or someone you can no longer physically see.

I pause for a minute to reflect before I share my experiences with you.  We do not always see it when we are flowing with the river of life how there is a connection in all we go through.  My father would share this wisdom with us continually.  Charlotte, my dear, when it comes to certainty, there are two things on which you can trust will never change.  Taxes is one, and that each of us will die one day.  How ironic in that nothing is coincidence way that the first significant loss through death I would know would be of the man who tried to teach me not to be afraid. 

I was 22 when my father left Earth, and I was able to utilize an inherited gift passed down to me.  When my father left his body, I felt his soul move over my shoulder as he expressed gratitude for being with him on his journey.    While others in my family found that cocoon in which to begin their retreat as despair started to show it can be menacing, I stepped further out into the open air, figuratively speaking.   I opened my arms wide in celebration that my father was now completely free.  

It is always the lens through which we choose to see.

All of us have an intuition, though not all of us choose to lean into how we might utilize our inner knowing.  Me, well, I chose to heed my father’s teaching that death was part of life’s flowing. 

Jack shared with you in his opening about an adventure we took on a several week hiking journey.  The Appalachian Trail for 430 miles while I healed my profound grief.  Carlos was his name – the one who I in tuned reached the end of his life at his own choosing.  We had served together in the military.  I, a medic in training.  Carlos, the one to make me laugh at just about everything. 

I can still feel myself standing in the kitchen 23 years after standing by Carlos for a picture while we were serving.  Carlos just shot himself I said to my daughter as I felt the disbelief start to sink into me.  I hurried upstairs to look for that photo buried under years of collecting.   Life is miraculous like that when what you most seek rises to the surface as if laying in wait.  Within seconds of searching, I was holding that photograph we had someone once take. 

Dear Carlos, his heart shattered in two that he lived through deployment and his best friend did not return home beside him alive.  The guilt of surviving was Carlos’s greatest battle to fight.  In that moment I felt Carlos leave Earth, I also heard this whispering.  Do not be afraid to love followed by his infectious laughing.  

Carlos, dang him anyway for once again seeing what I couldn’t fully see.  He was good like that – his way of using his own in tuning.  He once asked to take a picture of me so that I could then see how I looked in his eyes.  Yeah, ok Carlos, I am starting to see some of what you saw, but I still question if you needed glasses for those bad eyes.  Ha ha!   You were – and still are – one hell of a friend Carlos, and I am grateful our paths intertwined. 

You left Earth telling me not to be afraid to love.  How did you know that was my deepest fear I was not even fully aware that it was?   I believe holistically mind, soul, and body, yet I could not see that my left ankle was symbolic of my fear to step forward lovingly.  The ankle that connects our leg to our foot, which allows us to move forward, or not – our choice to decide.  Four surgeries on my left ankle, rehabilitation, and then your death a knock on the cocoon from the outside.   

One of the things I loved about you most Carlos is how you made me laugh, especially when you would not let me take the toughest times too seriously.  You made sure I held a reverence for the sick and injured while I was medically caring for someone’s needs.  It would have been disrespectful to laugh amidst the pain someone was experiencing.   But you were right there to make sure that I provided the space someone needed to heal themselves while maintaining a balance to know I couldn’t do the healing.  I could provide support, but I could not carry the sole responsibility.   Each of us ultimately owns the will to heal whatever infliction we are facing.

Boy, when the torrential rains were not letting up on Jack and I on that Appalachian trail, for a split second I was not appreciating your laughter to remind me to “lighten up Charlotte” and trust the rain will ease.    I had a few more “f-bombs” I could have tossed your way, you know, that is before I found I, too, could not stop laughing.   That is you, always helping me balance the toughest times with a reminder the toughest times are only temporary. 

Four ankle surgeries prior to this sixty-day hike, just Jack and me.  One surgery to represent the brokenness in forward steps when homelessness and $17 dollars to my name was my reality.  A second surgery to represent the paralysis in my steps when my daughter was taken from me by her father, and I feared for her well-being.  A third surgery to represent the crippling in my walk when a second marriage revealed the intention for “I do” was not because he loved me. 

And a fourth surgery the final pins to give me the ability I needed to begin moving forward with ease. 

Carlos, did you send Jack to rescue me?  I am blessed beyond measure to have my daughter, for in my darkest days she was my daily reason to keep living.   I am here because of her anchoring.  Yet perhaps you could sense I needed an additional being to give me the courage to continue to evolve and grow.  A being who would teach me to live by your last words before you decided it was time to go.  “Don’t be afraid to love” and if anyone is best equipped to teach that, it is my dear Jack who only knows love unconditionally.   Carlos, know that I heard you and I am no longer fearing. 

 If you are still “listening to” my story and you are personally struggling on your journey, may you find comfort when I say I understand when the path becomes dark, thick, and overwhelming.   Maybe it would be better to say I can relate, for I cannot fully understand what it is to walk in anyone else’s shoes.  What I can understand is the times when things feel so incredible jumbled and confused.  Someone can be talking, using the smallest of words, and still, you find it hard to understand what they say.  It is hard to put into words, isn’t it, what it is like when in a dark, extremely dark place?  

The best I can offer is two options, but two is better than one, don’t you think?  Actually, I can offer three options, which means hopeful possibilities.  One option is to take a step backwards, which still means moving.  A second option is to stand still and do nothing.  A third option is to take a small step forward, only an inch is necessary.  Moving forward no matter the pace or distance is still stepping towards the future and away from painful history.  

If I had answers, I would gladly give them for you to choose.  We both know there is only one person who ultimately knows what to do.   That person being you.  If I sit beside you in silence, know that it is not because I do not know what to say.  It is what my dear Jack has taught me is the best approach to take.   Jack speaks to me, undoubtedly.   We do not need to hear each other verbally talk to still hear each other’s hearts speak.  Yet, there are times Jack holds the space in silence so that I can hear the voice who is best suited to guide me in my decision-making.  The voice of my soul holds the wisdom and clarity I most need.

My dear friend Carlos asked that I not be afraid to love, and for the rest of my days on Earth I will do my best to love fearlessly.  I will pass on my wish to you if you are reading my story.  Live joyously.   Yes, life’s flow can be filled with fallen logs, waterfalls, and fog so thick the river ahead cannot be seen.  But, oh, just past these spots in the river are the most pristine waters in which you can float effortlessly.  And believe it or not, there is a joy found in having maneuvered through the treacherous spots without sinking. 

So, yes, live joyously.  Live authentically.   You may not be perfect, but that is the beauty of living.   If we did not have anything to evolve through – if we did not have that cocoon to break out of – the rest of the world would miss out on our breathtaking wings. 

  Mom, it is me Dinah, now, who would like to add to your story.  Jack was sweet to suggest I should also do a little talking.  

When I joined the family, Jack and I had a talk about your journey.  Jack shared what had been his primary focus and where he thought I could be of service to meet your needs.  Jack shared that his focus had been on guiding you on your path to loving the whole of you.   He felt you were now ready to start walking with joy in all that you set out to do.   He also felt that with a deeper sense of self-love you were now ready to step into your purpose to guide others to find within themselves the same.  Jack seems to feel that joy and giving love are two of my best traits. 

I blush a little at Jack’s gracious and kind words about me.    After all mom, I am just being what I think is the best way to be.  Isn’t life about joy and loving?  It seems too simple, but for some reason I sense there is resistance and fearing.  At least that is my experience with don Gato, our Cat, who didn’t seem to understand when we met that I was only playing.   I did not take it personal, though, when he struck his paw at me.   I thought he was introducing me to a new way to play.  I then realized when he spit at me that he wanted me to go the other way.  I was not deterred though, for I knew beneath his defensiveness that don Gato was afraid love might hurt.  I think he is learning to trust my love is pure. 

Mom, as Jack and I were listening to you share your story both of us felt so blessed that you had once heard our crying.   The gift of your hurting heart could hear each of us also needed rescuing.   Mom, if Jack and I had searched the world over, we would not have found anyone better to give us the fullest meaning of home.  Not just in shelter, food, and warmth, but in the greatest sense of belonging we could know.  Your whole unconditional heart of fearless love, a beautiful ripple in life’s splendid flow.

I now prepare for the next several week hike of the Appalachian Trail, this time Jack will not join me in his physical body.  Once again, I will be walking another section of this majestic trail along side Grief.  Yet, something else will walk beside me thanks to Jack, and to Dinah who Jack has taught and trained and role-modeled the way.  Joy will also accompany the trails I take. 

Dear Jack, when tears flow, I promise to find laughter, too.  When I am not sure if I can take one more step up a steep hill, I will think of how no hill was too steep for you.  I will push forward as you taught me to do, eager anticipation to see the grand views.  When the rains come, I will try as you did to see if I can shimmy and shake the droplets from my coat, but something tells me I will not do as well as you.   If memory serves me right, you always dried out quicker than I was able to do.  

Sweet dreams my dear Jack, where you now rest peacefully.  Thank you for giving me not only the gift of you.  Thank you for leading me through the unknown back to me.

Mom, we both know that I am not meant to join you on your next Appalachian Trail several hundred miles hike.  We both know that we have reached “that time”.  

There is something I would like us to do before I turn North, and you turn East.  Before I become an angel above and you step into new beginnings.  

Grab your keys and let’s go for a car ride.   I know, it is hard to believe, isn’t it mom, that I am eager to get in that box car of yours while you drive.  You know I have something special in mind if I am insistent not to go back inside.   I will have plenty of time to rest in our home; now it’s trail time. 

Thanks mom, for bringing me to my favorite place to be.  You and I, these mountains, these single foot paths, the smell of pine trees.   Mom, hey wait, I will be right back to lead the way.  That squirrel is calling me to come play.   Ok, I’m back now that the squirrel is back in his tree.  I think he enjoys the exercise when I run at the heels of his feet.  

We do not need to turn around yet mom; we can complete this circle we are walking.  Don’t worry, you will not have to carry me back to the vehicle; I have got the needed energy to complete this loop we are traveling. 

This way now mom, trust me.  Let’s meander, let’s explore, trust what you cannot see.  I know you are looking out for me, worried that my body may not be up for this hike.  This is a special day mom; it will be alright.  Ah, there is nothing better than the great outdoors and the ability to drink from this cold stream.   No better moment than right now, right here, you and me.

My body is growing tired, yes, yet it is my soul that is in the lead.  I would continue to keep my body going if I felt that my work on earth was not yet complete.   Dinah is ready now as your next guardian in fur, and mom, so are you.  I would stay as your Earth angel a little bit longer if I thought becoming your angel above was too soon.   We both know, I will never not be beside every step you take.  You are my heart, and I am yours, no matter distance or space. 

Before we go back to the vehicle, back home, and I then begin my walk across the bridge, I would like to tell you this.   You know how to walk the paths in which you can’t see what awaits.  You have within you all that you need to step forward in trust and faith.   You have strength, you have courage, you have fierce determination, and you have something more that is the key to everything.  You have the ability to love again – yourself and others – unconditionally.  You had thought your worth was nothing, and that joy was no longer what you should receive.  Then, mom, you meet me! 

Well, joking aside mom, though bless your heart, I know that is how you think.  The teacher does not appear until the student is ready.   You were ready for love, and I heard your heart through space.   If I could hear your heart before we met, crossing that bridge will not hinder me from doing the same.

Ok mom let us head home so that I can see Dinah and don Gato and Teneera and Peg, too.  I will whisper my “see you laters” to my favorite postal worker and the one who introduced me to you.  One thing mom, that I ask of you please.  Let Dinah step into the space beside you on Earth when you begin your journey with grief.  She has her purpose to fulfill, too, and she is ready to teach you new things.  She is ready to keep you stepping forward in joy, loving the pathways in which what lies ahead is unseen. 

I love you mom, and I thank you with all my heart and soul.  If I had traveled the world over, I would have found no better friend, no better mom, no better person to serve, than you.   Every trail you walk, listen, and look closely.  I promise, mom, there I will always be.  –Written by Jack March 30, 2021  

I came to you late last night, to be with you while you slept.  I lay my head on your pillow, while next to me you wept.  A gentle smile kissed your lips as I licked away a tear.  Until your time to join me, I’ll be waiting through the years.   – Author Unknown

Sincerely,

-Christine

For more inspirational stories of hope and how twenty-three co-authors have found the ability to integrate pain, trauma, sorrow, despair, and grief into living hope-filled lives, be sure and get your copy of Hope Has a Cold Nose if you haven’t already.    www.amazon.com, www.balboapress.com, or www.barnesandnoble.com

If you know of someone who would appreciate this blog you have just read, please share it with them.  Someone once told me that when we touch another life positively, the impact is exponential times four.  The person positively impacted tells four people who tell four people who.  Well, I think you understand the impact.     We cannot always change the ebbs of life, but we can choose to respond by cascading ripples of

hope.

Dear All,

There are two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle.   – Albert Einstein  

His name means “one not afraid to express his opinion”. 

Once again, I am reminded of the power of word definitions and how there is more than one way to perceive a meaning of every moment we live.

For this gracious, humble, grateful, wise soul had opinions he welcomed sharing.  He was open to any questions I wanted to ask.  An open book.  But only if I wished to listen, respectful of me if I wanted silence, or if I wanted to engage in dialogue.  He was taking his cue from me. 

His opinions were bold.   And strong.

For they spoke of a longing for unity among divisiveness our world seems to know intimately now.

They spoke of resilience if we could bring ourselves together and not pull ourselves apart.

They spoke of truth, near seventy years of proven wisdom on a journey that knew pain and joy, fear and peace.  And faith. 

Oh yes, bold opinions indeed about a world that once held abundant innocence and now held the wounds of lost naivety.  Or lost hope. 

Now it was a world filled with self-protection against uncertainty manifesting in the forms of frustration, anxiousness, anger, and blame.  This unseen virus has held us all hostage, he proclaimed as he shared his opinion that we can beat the virus if we unite.  Quietly, gently, he shared how the virus has divided us.  Grateful for the life he has lived in the United States since he was twelve years old, his voice conveying a pronounced deep appreciation and pride the United States is the greatest place in the world to live.  Then his voice filled with that sorrowful, wishful yet accepting of what life brings wisdom as he softly said but perhaps, we’ve forgotten.  From his vantage point, brokenness has filled in the hearts where they once held only belief. 

He has known loss over these last twelve months, a unity with every person in the world who was not discriminated against in losing during this pandemic experience.  Every person has been brought to a crossroads of letting go and choosing the individual response of what perspective they allowed to come.  It isn’t his first loss, again, a universal bond that loss is something every human being knows.  He was in celebration of this being day two that he was back to work after several months, and I was blessed to be the one he was taking to my home away from home on my first travel since the world momentarily stopped moving.    

Among what I have loved best when ever I have traveled is the souls I meet.  Those “moments” individuals who temporarily step onto our life path amidst the “seasons” and “lifetime” people who we know for a chapter of our story or for the entire book of our life.  I am often blessed with the richest encounters from these individuals divinely put on my path to message affirmation or clarity I seek. 

There is a childlike joy I feel as I prepare to travel, excited for the stories I might get to hear from a fortuitous encounter in an airport.  

Or a shuttle bus.

Maybe that is what it is like for Ginger and Kutana when we travel to our trail.  For them it is the squirrel, or chipmunk, or rabbit.  Or robin or goose.  Maybe it is the same squirrel that chatters in the tree at the girls as the one they saw the day before, a taunting game the three of them play.  Yet, I like to think it is a different squirrel and the girls are living my joy of that brief encounter with a stranger. 

Perhaps, too, if I choose to see more than I initially see, the girls and the squirrel are not divided in Nature, with the girls as potential predators and the squirrel potential prey.  Perhaps they are communicating let’s play, and it is I who am introducing the division when I call to the girls to leave the squirrel alone.  The girls are following a natural rhythm to life, an unconditional flow with the moments at hand, fully present.   They live life as if every moment is a

Miraculous gift.

Hours before I met this dear soul that would pick me up from the airport on my first trip in thirteen months, I had been creating an idea for implementation.   I desire to continue to co-author stories of hope.  Twenty-three co-authors helped create Hope Has a Cold Nose, and now their stories are inspiring hope and healing to not only other military veterans.  Hope and healing are cascading across the globe through the stories in HHCN.

The integration of pain, trauma, sorrow, despair, and grief into living hope-full lives.  Stories of hope that have risen from pain.  Stories to inspire.   And something more. 

To unite.   For though no person lives a story exactly the same as another, each person knows loss. 

And a rise up.  And perhaps down again before climbing back up.  Each person knows the call of their soul to not give up.   And each person knows a dark night of the soul.

Hours after deciding I was feeling called to begin asking all of you, and all whom you know, and all whom they know to join me in gathering stories of hope that I will then coauthor and share through blogs and podcasts.  And who knows, maybe be led to book three.  (smile).  Hours after deciding, and asking for a sign of affirmation, my path crossed with this dear wise soul who had an inspiring story to share.  

My path intersected again with this dear gentleman three days later.   I asked him if he liked to read, for I had brought with me a copy of Hope Has a Cold Nose with the intention that someone would cross my path to give it to.  He graciously told me that he did not read much, as he preferred to experience life, not read books about how he should live life.  I casually asked if it would make a difference if they were life stories.  He thought it just might.  He could probably give something like that a try.  I didn’t tell him about HHCN, as my heart held the space asking if he was the one to fulfill my intention.  Waiting for that inner voice to whisper yay or nay. 

As he continued driving, he went on to tell me about an Andy Griffith show titled Man in a Hurry.  A businessman breaks down in Mayberry, in a very anxious hurry to get his car fixed, and during the lengthy time Gomer takes to repair it, the man has a realization that life should not be lived in haste.  When Gomer brings back the repaired car, the man insists it has another noise and should be looked at so that he can stay longer.  I cannot begin to write the story in the same eloquence in which it was being told to me.  I can’t find the words to describe the grace nor the tone of voice nor the grandfatherly wisdom of a man as I listened to what wasn’t being said.  How many people in haste he has taken here, and oh please hurry sir to there.  I listened to him not speak what I was certain he had intimate knowledge about through how he had lived and not read about life is precious and should be savored. 

That I then learned he had suffered a heart attack five years earlier affirmed what I felt.

I asked him what was one of the greatest life lessons he had learned?  That God always answers my prayers, he stated.  He then shared with me about a time he was working two jobs, how his family was provided for and they were doing ok, but how he did not have the budget to take his children to Disney World as they so wished to go and do.  As he worked one of his two jobs, he prayed.  A couple of hours later a gentleman he was taking care of offered him tickets for two remaining days to Disney World that this gentleman and his family were now not able to use.  My prayers are always answered he gratefully and humbly said.

I shared with him how I could not remember who said it, but we can Live as if every moment is a miracle.  Or no moment is.  He didn’t disagree as he dropped me at the door and we both said our “wish you wells”. 

A few hours later, as both of us touched each other’s hearts with the gift of him receiving a copy of Hope Has a Cold Nose and a handwritten note from me, and I in return receiving his handwritten thank you note and a surprise room service delivery to enjoy a glass of wine courtesy of the hotel, I knew I had received my sign affirming implement a movement to cascade hope and healing through story sharing. 

In that way that I believe every moment is a miracle.   

If we choose to see. 

Do not underestimate the power of gentleness.  Gentleness is strength wrapped in peace and therein lies the power to change the world.  – L. R. Knost

Sincerely,

-Christine

If you have a story of hope to share, please click on this link:

https://icy-lake-9077.ck.page/87467300d7

If you know of someone who would appreciate this blog you have just read, please share.  Someone once told me that when we touch another life positively, the impact is exponential times four.  The person positively impacted tells four people who tell four people who.  Well, I think you understand the impact.  Let us pay forward the power of

Inspired hope.