Despite the Times, We Are Hope: A New Movement

In the movie “The Wiz,” the song “Home” begins with the words, “When I think of home, I think of a place where there’s love overflowing. I wish I was home. I wish I was back there.” 

I’m hearing of so many people leaving the country or wishing they could live elsewhere. I sometimes feel that same way when I think of what’s happening in my country and the earth, our only home, and I, too, hope and long for something better. 

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Unfortunately, “in some other quarters, hope has become a depleted resource,” as the Universal House of Justice noted in their November 25, 2020, letter to the Baha’is of the world, and it is forecasted to worsen when we need it most. They continued:

There is a mounting realization on the part of the world’s people that the decades ahead are set to bring with them challenges among the most daunting that the human family has ever had to face.

I wonder what could be worse than having no hope? For this reason, I have envisioned a new movement, “We are Hope.”

After four decades of focusing on bringing attention, healing, and justice to the most marginalized, strategically underserved, and undervalued — through diversity, Appreciative Inquiry, communications, and leadership training in my professional work and through the Pupil of the Eye movement in my service — I am now called to focus on a higher unity: the uniting of hearts through shared hope. 

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“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth,” wrote Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith.

As I reflect on this new initiative, the We Are Hope movement, I see how care has been the thread that ties everything together. Care gives people the courage to confront their fears, builds trust and connections, and creates the fertile ground where hope can bloom. 

As the world grows darker and more desperate through hatred, war, poverty, homelessness, and hopelessness, the light of hope is an answer. But be clear: Hope isn’t passive. It’s an active, living force that grows through care, compassion, and action. Hope is a type of wish grounded in faith and action and calls for activity instead of apathy, compassion instead of carelessness, and faith instead of fear. 

There is too much talking and too little commitment to just action today. Too many are responding with their heads and not their hearts. While facts and opinions may inform, it is love and connection that transforms. The world is tired of words; this movement is about action! It’s easy to assume that presenting the facts or sharing opinions will change someone’s mind or move them to action. But science — and life — tells us otherwise. It’s not that facts aren’t important; they are. But they’re not enough on their own. To truly move people, we must lead with compassion and connect more deeply. Baha’u’llah wrote:

The Great Being saith: The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation and compassion.

Likewise, Baha’u’llah’s son Abdu’l-Baha, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith, also stated:

The Kingdom of God is founded upon equity and justice, and also upon mercy, compassion, and kindness to every living soul. Strive ye then with all your heart to treat compassionately all humankind…

Studies show that people rarely change their beliefs or behaviors based on information alone. Why? Because facts speak to the brain, but care and compassion speak to the heart. Baha’u’llah wrote:

The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds; he whose words exceed his deeds, know verily his death is better than his life.

Hope cannot survive without action. To sustain it, we must turn our intentions into meaningful efforts. This requires focusing our energy where it matters most, emphasizing tools like the Circle of Concern, the Circle of Influence, and the Locus of Control. When our actions are rooted in care, they resonate far beyond the immediate moment. Science supports this, too — acts of kindness and service not only improve our own well-being but also ripple out to inspire others.

As the world appears to become increasingly divisive, spiritually heart-led, high-frequency people need a place where love overflows instead of the cold, heartless spaces where people are caught up in the snares of the lower frequency and residual effects of the death pangs of a dying old-world order. This is the essence of the We Are Hope movement, a heart-centered initiative created to foster resilience, unity, and healing in our lives and the collective. Now, more than ever, we must rise above the petty, selfish, hopeless, and biased norms and embrace our destiny of oneness.  

Hope isn’t a pipe dream; the teachings of the Baha’i Faith not only promise a better world but share a vision of how to create such a world. With the Baha’i vision of race unity, the harmony of science and religion, equality of men and women, the oneness of humanity, and the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty, I, too, can imagine and hope for a world where love is overflowing. Together, by leading with love, we can inspire hearts, heal wounds, and bring about the change we long to see in the world. Because where there is care, there is hope — and where there is hope, there is progress.

The We Are Hope Movement calls for action-oriented people to combine our powers and create havens of hope where hope and possibilities are the norm. Join the movement at https://wearehope.world/.