Today is a Holy Day in my faith community. One that symbolises the interplay between crisis and victory. Historical chronicles tell me of cruel and grueling atrocities that were suffered but despite the many efforts put forth by the rulers of the time, nothing could dispel the optimism they showed and the trust they had in the belief that good has the power to prevail over evil. Religious history is full of these accounts of the imbalance of physical power and triumph of spirituality. What I glean from this is that no matter how pressing the burdens of life, no matter how crushing the oppression, however dark it may seem at the moment, I must look to the future with a vision of what is possible. The practice of optimism is to safeguard my hope, to protect it and fan its flames. One of the physical symbols of this Holy Day is the rose, in particular the red rose. I can choose to see the rose in all of it gloriousness or instead, focus on the thorns attached to the rose stem. I chose to see the rose...
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