Hope Called. Change Came.

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Hope Called
by Louise Gallagher

Hope called,
hold on, she said.
Don’t let go.
Change, she is a’comin’!

I let go
not wanting hope
or change to come
and turn me around
into their reflections
of a song 
not of my own composing.

Hold on, she said
and I let go
and fell
off the bandwagon
where I found my song
playing between the notes
of a forgotten story
I’d whispered 
to the winds of change
long ago
about being
on the road less travelled
by hope and change
and their compatriots
who would have me
hold on to their coattails
for fear I’d lose my way
on my own.

I let go
and hope rose
and change happened
just the way I wrote it
in my story long ago.

Change is funny.

Take now. The entire world hopes that change will happen fast. For this virus to go away so life can return to normal. As if all the changes we’ve experienced during these past two years of lockdowns and openings and lockdowns again, and learning to wear a mask to forgetting we’re even wearing it. To distances we dare not cross being crossed because a vaccine makes us feel safer to distancing again because the virus has learned to change enough to cross the distance.

When I was a child, I wanted desperately for the growing up and being older part of life to happen faster. Now, I want desperately for the oldening part to slow down, even just a little bit, so I can savour each moment now without wondering what change will happen next.

And life keeps changing and I do too, in spite of all my wishing and hoping change would just slow down.

Except those changes I want to see happen fast. Like the virus dying. And climate change stopping. And the ongoing fight against racism and inequity, poverty and homelessness, war and senseless deaths by bullets flying from guns held in children’s hands and the hands of their fathers and mothers pointing at those they hate, and crimes against humanity, drug wars and overdoses, the destruction of rainforests, and so many other senseless things we humans do to destroy our planet and harm one another and all creatures big and small. Those changes I want to see happen faster. Faster. Faster.

And then hope calls and says, “Hold on” and I let go of holding on to my belief just thinking about the changes I want to see happen is enough.

It ain’t.

For change to happen, I gotta be its agent of possibility. I gotta let go of hope and change my ways to make way for all the change that’s gotta come.

So yeah. Once upon a time, I wished upon a star and hoped change would happen faster so that I could grow up and change the world.

Funny thing, it was never the world that needed to change, it was, and still is, always me.

13 thoughts on “Hope Called. Change Came.”

  1. We, the humans, are the individual agents of change that will make a difference if we choose to work collectively with like-minded goals in mind. You have identified the key to change by stating – it was never the world that needed to change, it was, and still is, always me.
    So many choose to deflect that responsibility onto the shoulders of others, for they neither understand nor better yet, accept their role in change.
    As to returning to “normal” as in pre-Covid times, I opine that will not come to be. So much has changed especially in how we work, shop and interact with others. In some instances differences are subtle, yet they are there and only passage of time will bring them to light. I may not be here when these subtleties explode.

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    • “We, the humans, are the individual agents of change that will make a difference if we choose to work collectively with like-minded goals in mind.” YES!
      Thank you Iwona — so true — and yup — we may not be here, but while we’re here we must do our best to create better, always.

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  4. LG,

    We’ve probably all seen a TV show or movie where somebody said ‘adapt or die’ – usually as a punch line, or as a gut-punch line.

    You’ve written often about our change-mess-time during the pandemic, as have I, and so many others too. And just when we think we’ve got some things figured out, along comes another variant of COVID and now I’m reading about a variant of Omicron …

    Most of us are not scientists with skills and knowledge to guess at what happens next, but as I watch new news about trucker convoys, politician purges, and every soapbox squawk …. to the point the only sane comments this week have come from Neil Young (who knew?) speaking sanity to stupidity …

    So what can we do?

    We are an adaptive species – and as we know too well from the critter world, all kinds of scenarios can unfold when a species is threatened by disease, predators, lack of food supply or territorial infringement by competitors. It would seem, right now, we are threatened by all of these forces …

    As each day goes by I feel less concerned (though I’m keeping an eye) on the next new crisis du jour and am more focused on doing new things and doing old things better. I’m feeling better and, it seems, doing better.

    Adapt or die might not be the right phrase here – so I’ll say ‘adapt ot miss the boat’ …

    M

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  8. Your poem is absolutely lovely, I love how you take ownership by letting go of hope itself. Change is ineveitable and it is important we are intentional and authentic in finding our way through change. You convey this ever so beautifully.

    “For change to happen, I gotta be its agent of possibility. I gotta let go of hope and change my ways to make way for all the change that’s gotta come.” – Absolutely loved how you said this.

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