Mountains of Hope Project

What gives you hope? I’ve been collecting responses to this question so that I can use them as materials and inspiration for my next body of work to be shown at the Garden Valley Center for the Arts this October.

I’ll share bits of the process along the way, keep a running list of submissions here and if you’d like to add to the list feel free to send me a note in the box at the bottom of the page.

What Gives You Hope Responses

Beauty of nature in the simplest things - an unfurling fern frond, dew on moss, chattering birds, a peak of sun from behind a cloud. The song Open Air by Lemolo. Remembering loved ones who have passed on and the unrelenting joy for life they embodied that I still feel around me today.

Love this and love reading the comments! Ok so, a couple places. Forgiveness in everyday life- the breaks and repairs in life. Grace in ordinary moments. My Faith. Generous strangers. Being known and still loved by friends. Belly laughs…and Karma haha (jkjk)

❤️❤️❤️ Women friends give me hope!

I find hope in connection! Connection with other amazing humans ❤️❤️❤️

Family. Music. Sunny weather.

It’s complicated.

I like to focus my hope on small wins. Progress, reflection and knowing that I’ve been through hard and come out the other side before and I can do it again with more knowledge and experience. Even at its worst, life goes on and finds a way to bring you what you need! That’s my base guiding light.

Love this 💖 I've been thinking about this lately as we move through a darker and darker world. Hope for me is felt mostly with a pure kindness or connection with a stranger. More concrete? Water 🌊

Looking up recipes.

Create meaning where none is promised or apparent.

I find hope in my community of Indigenous women. We have long lines of resilience that go back for centuries against the powers of colonization. Those powers are so strong and so incredibly destructive, yet Indigenous women are surviving and thriving. And further, they are leading the way in their communities to live right with each other, to be strong, to walk gently with Mother Earth. So inspiring! 🤎

Love 🥰

Human connection.

Coffee and sunshine

I love this! And I love Pema’s work! 🙏 What brings me hope is hearing the small wins in my client’s lives that aren’t necessarily loud and noticeable to others, but huge internal progress that changes how they can show up for themselves, and the world 🙏 The quiet wins are often the strongest!

My favorite saying these days, “Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that the Tim Man didn’t already have” We seem to always look outside ourselves for answers, when they are inside all of us!

I like to listen to this YouTube video when my hope starts to feel absent.

A freshly poured Guinness in a glass when it still has that beautiful foam gradient from gold to dark brown brings me joy.  A summertime concert at an outdoor venue with a grass lawn, enjoying a drink. Specifically, just as the sun is beginning to set and exterior lights are switching on ✨

What Gives You Hope?

Project Inspiration

This project has been in part inspired by a Pema Chödrön teaching where she talks about the “conquering the mountaintop” metaphor and how we often use it to describe the path to growth and enlightenment. But what if that mountaintop were flipped? What if the mountaintop was pointing down toward the earth instead of up to the sky? She asks us to consider hiking down and leaning in, instead of up and away.

This concept of leaning in helps me find peace and hope as I navigated my own mountain range, because there is hope in pain and peace to be found together.