- Tim Breen, Ph.D., Head of School
Recently, we had a guest speaker for a full community meeting. Sumaya Abu Haidar, one of the co-founders of Watershed School, joined us to share thoughts on hope. This ties in with our SEL foci for the quarter — gratitude and optimism. Although scheduled many weeks ago, Sumaya’s message was even more essential now due to the recent shooting in Boulder, and the despair and hopelessness that can follow yet another mass shooting in our country.
Professionally, Sumaya now helps run a coaching practice (bluedotcoaching.org) and engages with clients through equine coaching and regular coaching. In her work she has reflected a lot on hope -- what it is, where we find it, and why it matters. Her talk drew on this wisdom, and was also framed around an accident she had a year ago that has taken a long time to recover from. As she was going through very difficult times, including traveling far and wide to get medical help (and with her condition stumping doctors), she struggled with a lack of hope. Through this, she realized that she “wouldn’t find hopefulness at the doctor’s office, or from someone telling me I’ll be OK.” Rather, she found it by looking within — rediscovering her innate capacity for joy. This is a powerful message: that perhaps the strongest, truest source of hope lies deep within all of us. As she said, “Nothing can touch our capacity to feel love for others, nothing can touch our capacity to feel hope.” Sumaya also noted that, while this capacity is always within us, it can often be hidden, hard to access. She suggests that, in those darker times, we focus on curiosity and awareness — noticing the world around us with an open heart.
Noticing the world around us with an open heart.
I would add that it helps to take action — to engage in work you feel is important. I recently read a beautiful book by Terry Tempest Williams: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice. In one section she was writing about her deep sadness about our treatment of the environment and public lands, and about the work she undertook to make a difference. One line struck me like a bolt: “Good work is a stay against despair.” Indeed. And this is clearly her way, even in dark times, to access the hope that, as Sumaya says, lies within us all.
