Hope keeps cropping up . . .
Hope keeps cropping up. In February things can look dark in the Northern Hemisphere, but the light always comes.
I want to share some hope with you in the form of an audio book, a YouTube video, a walk under gray skies, a skit, and a newspaper article.
Last night I listened to the first part of Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising with Trini Alvarado as narrator. I’m looking forward to the rest!
Esperanza Rising is the kind of story I like: the 13-year-old Esperanza has to find courage to take a big risk, to make a new life in a new place with her family.
She has a big challenge in front of her because it’s 1930 and the Great Depression is coming.
While I listened, the relationships between the characters gave me hope. Early in the story, Miguel and Alfonso and Hortensia demonstrate their friendship with Esperanza’s family.
In Mexico there’s a big divide between Esperanza and Miguel, but what will happen when they get to California?
My eldest sent me Esperanza Spalding’s 2016 performance at the White House. Esperanza sings about choosing hope with Louis Armstrong’s ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.
At the YMCA last night, there was a skit about the exiled tribes of Israel returning to Jerusalem from Babylon. When they got to Jerusalem, things weren’t quite the way they’d hoped. They experienced hardship in their new life.
Many people are making a new life in Germany and many are facing unexpected hardship. Many others are helping. It’s an adjustment for everyone.
The choice to hope has to be made again and again. In January 2016, we learned about a shocking incident in the Cologne main train station. I found hope in the courage shown by refugees in this article (sent to me by my friend Jane Joo Park).
The U.S. Declaration of Independence describes the unalienable rights given to all of us: the right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
We aren’t promised happiness, only the right to pursue it.
We have the right to choose hope, if we’re brave enough to do it. Let’s help each other.
Eleven-year-old William has to win over the giants who are picketing his family’s castle and the Royal Marigold Restaurant.
They think William and his family have poisoned the Seven Kingdoms’ Mr. Giant a.k.a. Mr. G. (Long story about a comic strip that was supposed to be a joke . . . )
William has to figure out what happened to Mr. G and convince these giant visitors that they can trust him . . .
For ages 9 to 12.
