What hope is, what hope isn’t, and how to find it in hopeless times.

Hope is not optimism. It’s not toxic positivity. It’s not a promise of future success or progress. And it’s definitely not something that can be reduced to a scripty-font platitude on an Instagram post.

So what is it?

One thing is certain: real hope demands that we do something with it. That we live it out. That we use hope to participate in a bigger story playing out behind the bleak world we see on the news or in our social media feeds every day.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a person of faith, or someone disillusioned with faith, or someone who hardly ever thinks about faith: if you’re a human being who longs for a spiritual counternarrative to live by, this book points to one resilient enough to endure crises and crushing defeats. If you’re tired of hearing about some heavenly hereafter amid the pressing need for justice here and now, this is a book about hope for this world—not the next.

After exploring what hope isn’t and then what it is, MaryAnn McKibben Dana reflects on the surprising place where hope is often found—in the messiness of our imperfect, flawed, beautiful human bodies. In the second half of the book, she talks about making hope real: sharing hope through stories, cultivating hope through simple practices, and nurturing hope in hopeless times—when only real hope can persevere.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section One: What Hope Is Not

          Hope Is Not a Prediction

          Hope Is Not Optimism

          Hope Is Not Charging into the Future

          Hope Is Not Toxic Positivity

          Hope Is Not Cause and Effect

          Hope Is Not the Opposite of Despair

          Hope Is Not Solace

          Hope Is Not Future-Proofing

Section Two: What Hope Is

          Hope Is What We Do

          Hope Is Outmatched

          Hope Is Enough

          Hope Accepts and Refuses to Accept

          Hope Is Either On or Off

          Hope Holds Things Loosely

          Hope Is the Long View

Section Three: Hope Lives in the Body

          To Comfort and to Care

          Right of Repair

          The Power of Anger

          Shock, Silence, Stillness

          It Doesn’t Get Easier

          Trauma = Pain + Confusion

          Low Battery Mode

          Hope Enters the Body through Joy

Section Four: Hope Travels in Story

          Something to Live For

          Telling the Right Kind of Story

          Shifting the Point of View

          Proximate Purpose

          Hopeful Stories Need Tricksters

          Rethinking (Happy) Endings

Section Five: The Practice of Hope

          The Practice of Pointing the Compass

          The Practice of Ten Things

          The Practice of Finding What’s Stable

          The Practice of Surviving the Winter

          The Practice of Going Back to Basics

          The Practice of Doing It Yourself

          The Practice of the Big Three

          The Practice of Writing Fiction

          The Practice of Pulling Up the Anchor

Section Six: Hope Beyond Hope

          Hope as Protest

          Navigating the Three Ds

          In Praise of Slow and Sloppy

          Persevere, Rest, Persevere

          Moving through It

          Go until No

          It’s Already Over

          Stay in the Storm