This engaging 90-minute session will be facilitated by the Wisdom of Hope Circle, marking the Circle’s sixth year of participation in World Values Day.
The Wisdom of Hope Circle is an international forum of 15 people connecting diverse experiences and perspectives, gathering multiple times per year from: Bali, El Paso, Hong Kong-Singapore, Kyiv, Vienna, London, São Paulo, the Washington, D.C.–Baltimore region, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.
World Values Day invites us to consider not only the values we hold, but how we live them. The Wisdom of Hope Circle is contributing to this global conversation by exploring a simple but demanding idea: hope becomes meaningful when it moves into action.
Hope is not merely a feeling that circumstances will improve. Nor is caring only an inner experience. Hope asks something of us. It invites us to participate, to contribute and, at times, to take a courageous stand for another person, a community, a cause or the kind of world we want to help create.
People may begin from different places. We may move from apathy to pity, from pity to sympathy, from sympathy to empathy, and from empathy to compassion. Yet compassion itself contains a further invitation: What will I do with what I now see, understand and feel?
This is where care becomes service. It is where concern becomes contribution. That contribution may begin within us: confronting a fear, changing an assumption, questioning a prejudice, becoming more self-aware or learning to see another person in a more generous light. It may also move outward through service, advocacy, generosity, relationship-building, community participation or taking a stand when silence would be easier.
Hope in action therefore carries a duty of care: care for ourselves, care for others and care for the world we share. But this duty is not fulfilled simply by feeling concern. It is expressed through our willingness to contribute, however modestly, and to accept some of the effort, discomfort, courage or sacrifice that meaningful contribution may require.
This conversation is not based on the belief that everyone must make a grand gesture. It begins with something more personal and practical: identifying the difference each of us feels called and able to make. The contribution may be quiet or visible, internal or external, individual or collective. What matters is the movement from passive hope to active hope, from wishing that the world were different to accepting some responsibility for helping it become different.
Through small-group conversations, we will explore how hope moves from an inner feeling of care into meaningful contribution. We will consider the fears, risks and personal barriers that can prevent us from acting on what we value. We will also reflect on the courage, inner capacity and support that make action possible. Ultimately, the conversation is about how each of us can make a difference within ourselves, in our relationships, in our communities and in the wider world. As a Circle, we wish to explore how our values give rise to hope—and how hope, expressed individually and collectively, can mobilize the human spirit into action and help make the world a better place for all.
