Saturday evening. Out watering in the garden, making sure the beans, and sugar snaps and courgettes are getting what they need. Finishing up when hubby comes asking if I want to watch something with him. Of course I do!
Sit down, open up Netflix, and start to scroll. Too much to choose from, not a clear enough image of what I want to see… Hubby stops me, asks Whats Mission Blue that you just scrolled past? I scroll up and read “Meet the woman who’s spent more than 7000 hours underwater and lives to save the worlds dying oceans” which was enough to hook me, so I pressed play.
One and a half hour later I am grateful that I did. I am also grateful that I/we have chosen to go vegetarian as one amongst a number of other informed conscious choices that I/we have made.
“I wish you would use all means at your disposal—films, the web, expeditions, new submarines, a campaign!—to ignite public support for a network of global marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.” – Dr. Sylvia Earle
Hope spots – what a beautiful name, for something which is – truly – hopeful and possibly life-saving. You see, we’ve wrecked the oceans. And the problem is that it’s hard to tell for us. Because the surface of the ocean looks the same, regardless if the expanse underneath the surface is thriving or dying. And since humanity cannot survive without living oceans, we depend upon them.
But the hope spots, oh, the hope spots!
Crying out to me – we are here! Let us be in peace and tranquility, and we will do that which living systems do when left alone: revert to our innate wellbeing. That is true for humans as well as for oceans, and all other living systems.
Hope spots.
I love the idea of hope spots.
Especially since I’ve come to view hope less as a passive noun, a wish, and more as an active verb, to have hope.
I do have hope. I do. In my darkest moments, sometimes I lose sight of it, only perceive futility… and then, before I know it, there’s light. Again. The darkness is slowly taken over by light, ray after ray of life-giving light. Recharging my spirit with courage and tenacity, with the energy to keep on hoping, taking action, loving, caring, laughing.
Hope spots!
Let’s join hands to create more of those, an abundance of hope spots, all over!