Obsession and Hope

If you've ever really read the myth of Pandora's box, then you may know that "hope" is the only demon that was never vanquished.

When I completed the Radiance Course at Yoga Farm, I vaguely recall receiving a stone marked "hope," but I can't find it or recall what has become of it. I felt deja vu when I also received "hope" on the completion stone for Foundations of Facilitation I recently attended through Cuddle Party facilitation training.

Tracking that, I have a new opportunity to examine the devastating patterns of my own behavior about "hope" as it pertains to material attachment. I am a visual thinker, and I sometimes become obsessed with one project or another. In the past I have been super hopeful about creating a home and business space only to have those hopes severely and painfully dashed. In this case I have the tools of inquiry to better understand the meanings within that pattern for me:

I realized that I can be grateful for what I already have. I looked at the drawings that I was recently compelled to make for my perfect earthship yoga, teaching, retreat center and began to plan for the building I already occupy to become what I put down on paper for my pipe-dream recycled castle in the cloud:

What I have to learn from examining my relationship with hope is that when hope is painful it is the suffering of attachment, and when that is noticed, I may choose instead to be grateful for what I already have!