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The complexity of the human heart allows us to hope for something and to expect that we will be disappointed in it at the same time, to maintain ideals, and believe that they will never be realized at the same time. Holding these dual views defines the nature of disillusionment ' the profound sense that one's most cherished hopes will not materialize in one's lifetime or in the space of time in which the heart feels things should or must happen.

Disillusionment has affected a broad spectrum of people within our society. It has affected views of political life, of government practice, of leadership integrity, of corporate agendas, resulting in a belief that those in positions of power will rarely be discovered to have integrity at their core, but will be found to have feet of clay and a wandering moral sensibility.

We live in a society in which disappointed idealism has become rampant, in which the heart's voice that things be different has become muted to a dull whisper, and in which the ongoingness of the status quo has seemed inevitable.

And yet today in the presence of disillusionment, a new breath of inspiration and hope is coming into being. It arises from the heart and is being reinforced by currents of spiritual energy that are covering the Earth. This hope may be externalized in specific political figures, but it is larger than any one person. Its source is the source of hope itself, the source of inspiration itself, expressed as a new energy and light manifesting on the Earth to reawaken dreams and ideals, desires for freedom and justice, and the longing for purity and integrity. Although disillusionment may be present, hope is also rising.

Hope calls us to believe in the possible. It calls us to put down the compromises we have made with the present which have allowed us less that what we would wish, and to lift up our beliefs and dreams that something new and forward-moving can happen.

Hope is expansive. It calls us to enlarge our view of what is, and to see past present limitations to a vision of the possible.

Hope awakens us to the possibility of the unseen coming into being, not through ways that are known, but through ways that are unknown.

In this sense, hope and trust have a similar foundation, for they are not based on the assurance of guarantees or on a clear path that dictates how desires shall be fulfilled. Rather, they are based on a longing of the heart that something be so, and the feeling which supports this longing that says that all roads are open, all outcomes can come into being.

The sense of an open future is the vision that the force of hope brings. It is carried on the stream of light that encircles and penetrates the Earth now, and it infuses hearts and minds to consider new options in resolving old problems. It asks us to release our hold on disappointed expectations, and to allow something new to come into our hearts.

For some, the road that has been trod into disappointment has been a long one, and so the new offering of hope may be difficult to feel, to anchor in, or to trust. There may have been many attempts in the past to hope, and many that have led to further disappointment and the loss of ideals. Nevertheless, we are at a new time, and the light of the present is infusing the heart to believe once again, and to look down the open road once again.

For the ideals that are deepest within the human heart are eternal ideals. They are wishes for love, and freedom, and happiness, and peace, and a way to express the truth that lies within. In the deepest sense, these ideals cannot be put down, no matter how hard one tries, or for how long they are ignored. They can be covered over, and buried, and denied, and appear to be left behind for years and decades at a time. But in the end, they will awaken because they must awaken, for the heart's foundation lives in love and hope, and today it is being called to return to its spiritual roots and to find its deepest identity and core once again.

As the infusion of light penetrates more deeply into the Earth and into the consciousness of all, hope will expand and grow, overcoming obstacles that stand in the way. It will do so, not because of logical justifications or evidence presented in its favor, but because the force of light supports hope, and the heart that is open to its own light will find its way back to a new beginning.