I think you can absolutely still have hope while acknowledging we are in multiple forms of collapse. You can be hopeful you’ll get a job. You can be hopeful solutions will arise. You can be hopeful you’ll make friends. You can be hopeful that there are people who care for the world amidst the world being beat and bruised.
You’re allowed to care even though lots of things are going bad. Some things can’t be fixed or saved. But it’s okay to hold onto hope for something good to happen tomorrow. Good things are always going to pop up like flowers in war zones.
“The world is not on fire, there are just lots of fires.” Don’t lose hope that some fires can be put out. So much is still easy. Build a safe zone within the flames, and persist putting them out. Accepting we are in a bad place does not equal rolling over to let it get worse. No matter how bad things will get, you can still put out flames in different spaces.
You can give yourself the freedom of acknowledging life right now is in a state of unrest and we don’t know when the chapter will close, while also being happy we are here with other people and things that make it worth it. Because it is worth it. All hard things are worth it.
Allow yourself gentle mercies that will keep you alive.
