Hope that's visible.

It is human to be overwhelmingly discouraged by the state of things. It is also human to be deliriously, even idiotically, hopeful.

As an empire falls, the sun keeps rising. People still fall in love. We still plant trees. Make plans. Buy groceries. All in hopes of seeing tomorrow. And all in hopes of that tomorrow being better than the day before. Despite the horrors. Even if we know it all will happen alongside the horrors.

I used to think there was something more spiritual or special about a life spent in constant quiet prayer, up the mountain, in the temple. I now see how life for the rest of us is just as spiritual. We, too, are praying, hoping, constantly. Loudly. And it’s visible.

Every time I get my kids ready for school, every time I pick up the phone and call my sister, every time I cook a meal, I am engaging in a wildly hopeful act. Hoping they will make meaningful connections and gain understanding, hoping for comfort in a familiar voice, hoping for a few moments of delicious nurturance.

We are constantly hopeful beings, even when it feels like all is lost.

This Venus-Saturn conjunction in Pisces, the home of Jupiter, a sign of great hope for the coming spring, is a reminder to look to the things that show our hope and bring us joy and to commit to them again. And again.