A Ray of Hope for You: the 9th Seed of Hope

I am thinking of you as you make your way in our changed world, where so many people are coming together to help each other despite the continued divisions between us, like gender and skin colour.

In Perth, Australia, rains have blessed the trees in our garden with a much-needed drink after the long dry. Winter now, birds have arrived to feed in our trees and prepare for mating before spring arrives. These interconnected living cycles — far longer than the pandemic — settle me into Hopefulness that, having come together around the world to survive the pandemic, we humans can replace our long-held divisions with kindness.

To help this Hope to happen, this Seed of Hope — the 9th in the Seeds of Hope Collection — has “germinated” into a message from Dr Jane Goodall, Rob and me:

“I like to envision the whole world as a jigsaw puzzle…If you look at the whole picture, it is overwhelming and terrifying, but if you work on your little part of the jigsaw and know that people all over the world are working on their little bits, that’s what will give you hope.“
—- Dr Jane Goodall

The photo, “A Ray of Hope”, was taken by Rob Campbell.

We humans are most adaptable. For millions of years we have survived plagues, earthquakes, fires, famines and ice ages; and human-created disasters like wars and financial crashes. Now, we have the chance to be brave once more, this time on a global scale. Our “old normal” world has gone. Can we make our “new normal” world kinder than our old one?

How can we humans, working on our little bits of the global jigsaw puzzle, build systemic bridges of kindness across our human divisions to create a “new normal” where every life matters? Despite being isolated to where I live, this question is calling me to take action. Over the past few months I have been working on my little bits of the puzzle, including writing around kindness and joining the online dialogues amongst our Resilient Leadership™ Community.

Here we listen to and support each other’s little bits of the big jigsaw puzzle that Dr Jane Goodall speaks of. Exploring our Keys of Kindness together, we deepen our understanding about using kindness to bridge divisions in our world, and where we find the resilience to do so. It’s a joy for me that my purpose of kindness is echoed and expanded amongst us.

If you would like to share how you are taking care of yourself during these challenging times, I would be delighted to listen.

As you make your way in our changed world, I wish you Hope and Kindness.

Wendy