“Every blade of grass, each leaf, each separate floret and petal is an inscription speaking hope.”

—Richard Jeffries

This summer I am on a personal quest to see if I can still be a genuine person of hope in a world that is giving me ample reasons to not. A school shooting that took the daughter of a family I love and devastated my church and community, a too young friend diagnosed with terminal cancer, a war in Ukraine, a war in Israel and Gaza, a demoralizing presidential race, my own cancer scare, hundred-year old magnificent trees in my city plundered for pavement and skyscrapers, guns and violence everywhere, too many suicides, friends with addiction, kids with addiction, social media ruling our days and imaginations. Does the word “hope” I love still hold true?

One evening recently while cooking my family dinner I flipped on the 5 o’clock local Nashville news. I felt like I was watching a horror film. There was not one piece of good news in the whole segment. It left me feeling uneasy about the present and the future. Should I throw my hands up? Live in a perpetual state of fear? Was the world too dark, ugly and wayward for the good and sacred to prevail? Something stubborn inside me decided that night that I would prove to myself and the world otherwise. I would redirect my vision from the brutish to searching for the miraculous. I am collecting evidence to support my hypothesis that there is so much good here, remarkable beauty, and infinite reasons to still hope.

I am off to a great start. Just this week, I drove under a full rainbow. I also enjoyed a homemade chocolate mousse from a friend that felt heaven sent. I finished a beautiful redemptive book, Sipsworth, that spilled with hope. I went on a hike through a cedar forest with a freind and found a heart rock. I also spent an entire afternoon preparing a feast for my extended family. Amazing how the smallest things replenish our reserves of hope. Join me on my hope mission!

Thank you for continuing to support me at Bread and Honey and my recent brave release of SOULFULL.

I am signing off for the summer to spend time with my family and collect hope!

Much love and appreciation,

Farrell

P.S. Follow me on instagram for snapshots of what’s giving me hope.