Facts, Feelings and Future
It is indeed a fact that cancer and this pandemic has upended our lives. And our feelings about how those impacts on our daily lives are likely vast and varied. And it is my guess that for many, the concept of future seems uncertain and this can bring some anxiety and perhaps even some waves of hopelessness. I say this because it seems like in most of my groups this is a recurring theme lately. How do I hold hope and acknowledge the real hardships that accompany so much uncertainty? I recently came across an excerpt about uncertainty and hope that helped me reframe how I could think about it:
“It is important to say what hope is not: it is not the belief that everything was, is or will be fine. The evidence is all around us of tremendous suffering and destruction. The hope I am interested in is about broad perspectives with specific possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act. It is also not a sunny everything-is-getting-better narrative, though it may be a counter to the everything-is-getting-worse one. You could call it an account of complexities and uncertainties, with openings….It is a statement that acknowledges that grief and hope can coexist….Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognise uncertainty, you recognise that you may be able to influence the outcomes – you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists….It is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.”
– Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark, 2016
I hope for you today, as you continue to learn to live with cancer, to find a space to act in a way that is meaningful and invites in some hope. Here are a few things that are certain. Our calendar is, in fact, now out and there are a lot of things that can help support you as you cope with whatever your current “uncertainties” are. I don’t guarantee it will fix how you feel, but I do believe you can find something to look forward to doing in the near future.
So go ahead and check out some of our upcoming educational sessions that will be addressing ways to connect with your resilience. Take a little action, claim a little space for hope by signing up for something where you can surround yourself with others who understand and “get” what you are going through. Here are a few highlights to consider marking on your calendar:
- Making a Difference: Sharing Your Time, Talent and Treasures
- Building Resiliency During Times of Stress and Anxiety
- Fostering Connection in Periods of Isolation
- SMART: Stress Management and Resilience Training
- Community Conversations: Navigating Cancer While Black (Part 2)
With hope and gratitude,
Ali
Program Director | Gilda’s Club Minnesota
Contact Ali at Ali@gildasclubmn.org
