No. 72 Hope

Facillitator:
Date:

Group Session Plan from FUSN (developed by Allan Hartman)

Opening Words
Try to remember when life was so tender
that no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender that
dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender that
love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember, and if you remember, then follow.
The Fantasticks
Hope, whose whisper would have given
Balm to all my frenzied pain,
Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven,
Went, and ne'er returned again!
Emily Bront
Check In

Topic
There have been times in most of our lives when hope blossomed like the songs of birds on a spring morning. - when we were in love, when we started in a new job, when, out of nowhere, in a canoe on a quiet lake, we felt good about the world and ourselves. Remember when the United Nations was born, the Civil Rights Movement, the early days of the Peace Corps? What remains of these hopes? Can we read the morning newspaper and still hope? When misery, disease, war, and poverty surround us, is not hope a na_ve, if not escapist wish?

When was a time when you were hopeful about the world?
How hopeful do you feel now about yourself and the world?
How do you/we restore/maintain hope for yourself and the world?

Check Out

Closing Words
Deep in December it's nice to remember
Although you know the snow will follow
Deep in December it's nice to remember
Without a hurt, the heart is hollow
Deep in December it's nice to remember
The fire of September that made you mellow
Deep in December our hearts should remember
Then follow--follow, oh-oh

Follow, oh-oh