Hope Springs Eternal

I don’t believe the United States has ever been in a more precarious, even demonic place. Every headline seems to confirm it — the chaos, the lies, the divisions that cut deeper every day. It feels like we are standing on a cliff edge, uncertain of the ground beneath us.

And yet…

When I created "Hope Springs Eternal," I wasn’t trying to deny the darkness. I was trying to look at it directly, to say: this is real, and it matters.

But I also wanted to hold something else at the same time — the stubborn truth that hope always finds a way to rise.

For me, this piece became a nod to the women — especially the Black women — who have carried this country forward on their shoulders. Their courage, resilience, and insistence on dignity in the face of dismissal have shaped the best of who we are. Even now, as voices in power call for a return to “male standards” and try to silence the strength of women, I see hope refusing to be buried.

It is there in a sunflower growing where you least expect it. It is there in the courageous smile of a mother, a sister, a wife. It is there in the act of creating itself, in refusing to let despair have the final say.

That’s not naïve optimism. It’s survival. It’s spiritual defiance. It’s the whisper that says: you are not alone, and the story isn’t finished yet.

What does hope look like for you in times when the world feels unrecognizable?