I want a daughter while I'm still young; I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before this damage is done.
My greatest hope, inspiration, and joy!
Nineteen months ago, I was beyond blessed to become a Dad for the first time.
Our beautiful baby, Miriam, was born by emergency cesarean section two months early and weighed a teeny 2.7 pounds. Her wonderful mum and I spent two months in Neonatal Intensive Care, surrounded by our beloved NHS's most astonishingly dedicated and caring staff.
Every day, I would sit in the hospital from late afternoon to the early hours with Miriam snuggled on my chest. We were told skin-on-skin contact was good for the baby, and so comically, I would be sitting with many other dads, all topless, with our diddy babies on our chests!
Each evening my mind would wander with hopes of being a great Dad and raising Miriam to be a happy, safe, and content child. And one evening, I was overcome with emotion. I was listening to the lovely song by Arcade Fire - The Suburbs. In particular, it was one specific lyric that resonated with me:
“I want a daughter while I'm still young; I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before this damage is done.”
Those lyrics wholeheartedly capture why I am part of The Shining Light Project.
When I look around the world, I see division and anger, great unwellness and fear, and great toxicity across social and legacy media. I see partisan politics hopelessly revolve around the same ideological (un)merry-go-round. I see the capitalistic market system (where I spend much of my time) do so much good, yet so much damage.
Yet despite these signs of decay, I have boundless hope.
I hope because I’m privileged to work alongside selfless people who commit their entire lives to serving others daily. Their actions weave a genuine togetherness back into the tapestry of our frayed society. These people, whose stories we share at The Shining Light Project, are the personification of what Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone call Active Hope. Because not all hope is born equal!
Passive Hope is about waiting for external agencies to bring about what we desire. Active Hope is about active participation in bringing about what we hope for. It is doing what George Bernard Shaw called having a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one:
"This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
We can have reasons for hope, no matter what mess we are in, because we can be the change we want to see in the world.
As I sat with Miriam and listened to those words, I want a daughter while I'm still young; I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before this damage is done, I felt a great sense of joy at the thought of doing everything I could, as best as I could, to build a better future for Miriam and the world around her.
We all have a gift to give to the world, and I hope the stories we document at The Shining Light Project inspire you to use your gifts to build a better world.
Thank you for reading, take care and great blessings,
Benjamin