Active Hope (revised): How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power

by Joanna Macy

Passive hope is about waiting for external agencies to bring about what we desire. Active Hope is about becoming active participants in the process of moving toward our hopes and, where we can, realizing them.

Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we start from where we are by taking in a clear view of reality, acknowledging what we see and how we feel. Second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d like to see expressed. And third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction.

Since Active Hope doesn’t require our optimism, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless. The guiding impetus is intention; we choose what we aim to bring about, act for, or express. Rather than weighing our chances and proceeding only when ...

The worsening climate crisis • The threat of war and the cost of warfare • Pollution and destruction of the natural world • Widening of extreme inequality • Dismantling of democracy • Fears for how we’ll meet our basic needs • The prospect of societal collapse • Misinformation and lies blocking awareness of what’s really going

When we support and participate in these emerging strands of a life-sustaining culture, we become part of the Great Turning. Through our choices about how to travel, where to shop, what to buy, and how to save, we shape the development of this new economy.

“We need to live together,” the Ladakhi villagers say. “Or we will not live at all