Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Café
This week a friend who had been out gardening sent a message that working there had left her feeling like a “gardener of hope.” The phrase has stayed with me. I have had the opportunity to sit in that delightful space she and her husband have created and even the memory of it incites a hopeful spirit in me.
Such a hopeful spirit is not easy to come by these days. Yet there are those moments when hope seems present and available. I experienced it at a restaurant last night in a playful exchange with a baby at the next table over. I experience it anytime I am walking the quiet paths at Harrison Bay or sitting watching the water lap softly against the shore. Even a cup of tea in a favorite mug sends a message to my brain to be peaceful, hopeful.
Yet hope can be such a fragile, thin thread. Think of those fleeing war and famine, or worse yet trapped by it. I remember those folks daily and support charities whose efforts are engaged on their behalf. But I have worked with people in such dire straights that I wondered if I had even a tenth of their courage. It seemed the more difficult their circumstances the more they maintained some corner of hope in their downtrodden spirits to keep going.
My friend’s words cause me to think not only about the cultivation of her garden. What about the actions we take to cultivate the gardens, the atmosphere, of our lives? My great niece posted on Facebook this week the quote: “Pray for a good harvest but keep hoeing.” We have the dual challenge to focus on developing hopeful spirits, conveying that sense in our daily lives, and also to take the actions that reinforce that, multiply the effect.
Let us pray for a good harvest but keep hoeing, folks. Just a tip: you might start right now by googling Mary Oliver’s “The Garden .”
The invitation is open to share two cups of tea anytime at Hope’s Café or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.
May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” at Hope’s Café, for each other and all those we encounter. Shalom, Kate
Hope's Cafe 