Krista Tippett: Naomi Shihab Nye has a wonderful definition of contemplation: a long, loving look. She says, “when you take a long, loving look anywhere, you feel more bonded with whatever you’ve looked at.” So I offer that up as framing for the pondering and writing you might be doing in this space. Joining your sense of hope with critical thinking, or abandoning hope that shields you from the fullness of reality — the point of all that is not to become hard on yourself or disappointed with your version of hope. Instead, summon your best long, loving look at what’s happening around and inside you, at your reactions to this course, or this session in particular. What do they stir or confuse or spark in you?

You might also land on a single word or phrase that you found animating and use it as Naomi teaches: as an oar that could get you through the days just by holding it differently, thinking about it differently, and seeing how it rubs against other words, how it interplays with other words. Practice hearing your thoughts as text, the world as it passes through you as text, and try on a simple habit of writing things down.

Consider these words of Naomi Shihab Nye. “One nice thing about writing is that you get to meet these other selves, which continue on in you — your child self, your older self, your confused self, your self that makes a lot of mistakes — and find some gracious way to have a community in there, inside, that would help you survive.”

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