Through mist and rain, up and down the mountains…
We finally made it to Santiago de Compostela!
Welcome to our Autumn/Winter newsletter 2023
Hope: As we approach the New Year and reflect on 2023, it may feel difficult to sustain hope when so much seems to be going wrong and we are imperilled by multiple global threats – the ‘polycrisis’. This oppressive sense of menace makes us aware of a shared vulnerability that is hard to define. Perhaps this has contributed to the widespread intolerance and rigidity that we witness today? Yet hope, radical, active hope – not wishful optimism – is needed to sustain us and help us to envisage and enact new, wiser, and kinder ways of being in the world, to be agile and courageous.
To quote Rebecca Solnit from her book Hope in the Dark:
“Despair demands less of us, it’s more predictable, and in a sad way safer. Authentic hope requires clarity…and imagination, seeing what might lie beyond these situations which are perhaps not inevitable or immutable.”
The Power of Compassion: The temptation is to shut ourselves off from suffering, yet, as Professor Paul Gilbert of the Compassionate Mind Foundation says, “compassion gives us the courage and wisdom to descend into suffering”. Only by acknowledging our common humanity, by being prepared to engage in real dialogue, by widening our circles of compassion, can we begin to make the world a better place.
War: The ongoing wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan show us how much death, wanton destruction and immense suffering they cause – suffering that will resonate for generations. The HVHF refuses to engage in polarised debates, but we do stand in solidarity with healthcare professionals who, in the midst of terrible chaos, are struggling to save lives, to care for the sick and wounded and to alleviate suffering. We call for peace, for just and humanitarian responses, and for inclusive compassion. All lives are precious irrespective of race, faith or nationality. We call for an end to the recurring cycles of violence and for resolute actions to be taken to prevent ethnic cleansing and genocide.