Scrapbooking Hope

Call for submissions

Let me start by saying, this is not a post which will force hope on you. This is not a space of toxic positivity or feeling good about bad things.

I have been talked out of my anger and sadness too many times. I endorse yours and all the complicated feelings in between. Living in those spaces is the only way to become whole.

Instead, this is an invitation to look closely at the ways we are being taught to think and feel about the world. And to take rebellious ownership of our own attitudes and feelings.

Photo CKnapman

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Apathy is not a revolutionary stance

Earlier this year, I took a long hard look at my apathy and scepticism about the world.

The thing about working for 20 years on projects which are meant to end gender inequality and climate change, is that my takeaways became that the global systems which harm women and the earth were old and powerful and I was mostly powerless to stop them.

The obvious answer to this knowledge becomes apathy. I not only know trying is pointless. I have twenty years of evidence that it is pointless. (Plus lots of new wounds and scars to disempower me).

There is nothing like logic to engrain a belief.

Yet, when I have sat back to explore my apathy, I realised it is not well-founded clarity. Instead, I realised apathy is where I stand within the systems.

Apathy is not a revolutionary stance.

I decided instead, that a revolutionary stance would be to form ideas which those global systems did not create. To not believe the evidence I have seen - not because it is not true - but because it doesn’t serve me.

To shape change, I need to reach beyond my reactions, to cultivate emotions and attitudes which I choose for myself.

And this is where hope comes in.

Where does hope thrive or die?

I do not require hope from you, kind reader. But I do want to invite you to explore hope with me.

To think about how hope thrives or dies? Where might it gather? What conditions bring it into being? How can we choose (and choice is important) to cultivate it?

Especially as the future looks gloomy. Full of oligarchs, gender inequalities, climate disaster and the rich getting richer.

I do not want to deny the political and climate realities. But I do want to try to explore new ways of imagining future.

To find the creative capacity to go beyond the evidence we have gathered.

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Call for submissions

So, welcome to a new Notes from Saving the World feature, where I invite you to join me to reframe old ideas.

To explore our inner worlds, so we can challenge inherited ideas and cultivate better ways forward.

Issue one: Scrapbooking Hope

I invite you to send me your ideas on the theme of hope.

This could be a photograph/artwork or a short quote/poem (or a combination of the above).

You are welcome to link to a short part of a previous article or note you have written, or share something new.

Some inspiration:

• Hope about alternative human social systems, gender equality, climate solutions, community, family.

• Reframes on despair or lethargy or freeze, which help us see our struggles with a new lens.

• Hope as rebellion against current systems (which, with the 24-hour bad- news cycles and the hidden systems of power, lead us towards despair).

• Day-to-day moments which offer personal feelings of hope.

• Sounds, scents, colours. (Don’t feel restricted to words - I invite you to contribute in any way that feels aligned and easy).

Suggestion

Tuning our thoughts and senses towards hope is part of what I want to discover.

Asking myself day-to-day, what idea or image or thinking or sound makes me feel a little hopeful?

How to take part:

• If you use the Substack App, you can share your submission in notes. Please tag me, so I know you have submitted.

• If you are a newsletter only subscriber, you can hit reply and send me your submission to my email.

• If you don’t subscribe, I invite you to join. This is a reader-supported space and I would love to welcome you into the community.

The final piece

I will go over all the entries at the end of March and share a scrapbook of hope early April, with tags and credits to all your work.

Someone is growing seedlings in old water bottles on the Dubai pavement. I loved walking past these recycled pavement pots, as it is so counter to the popular image we have of Dubai around the world. When I see this, I see the ways people can use their agency to not only plant seeds, but plant unconventional ideas and let them take root. Photo: CKnapman

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“The Earth is tired of our blood and our tears”, Seán Pádraig O’Donoghue writes here². Liberation will come not through courting more pain and suffering, but through the active pursuit of pleasure and joy – because what feels good is ultimately good for the world.

• Quote from She who desires by

  Annette Vaucanson Kelly

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I hope (pun, maybe) this will be a creative way to get to know each other, while also gathering rebellious resilience to shape new climate and social systems.

I will be back next week with another essay and there will be more creative Scrapbooking¹ themes in coming months. So if you can’t join this time, subscribe to stay tuned for upcoming themes.

With hope (hopefully),

Catriona

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Do you have any questions? Do share them in the comments.

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Thank you if you commented and shared last week’s piece.

I have loved reading all your words about International Women’s day. They lifted me up all week.

If you missed it, you can read here.

More essays coming soon!

1. I chose the word scrapbooking because of its ability to bring together different perspectives and sources. I also like the idea of starting where we are - even if we don’t quite know how to get where we want to go - scrapbooking means we don’t have to have a fully fleshed out idea, we can start with an initial fledgling thought and go from there.