I was in a small group a few nights ago where we discussed one of the most pressing and contentious issues facing our country right now. As we talked, the air grew heavier, the mood more despondent. How do you correct a system where money flows freely and those in power have no incentive to change, even as millions are being harmed? The seven of us couldn’t change it. The seven of us couldn’t find the solution. The seven of us didn’t even know where to start.
Seven alone can’t find the answers. But maybe seven million can. And seven million who refuse to accept that nothing can change.
Hope can feel precarious. We want to be realistic, yet we also long for the best possible outcome. Michelangelo once said, “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
My therapist used to challenge me: “Why are you content with accepting crumbs from people? You deserve an entire slice of cake.” That lesson wasn’t just about my relationships—it was about the limits of my imagination. When we expect too little, we build lives, communities, and systems that reflect that smallness.
Dream bigger. Expect more. Refuse the smallness you’ve been taught to settle for. There is power in possibility.
Decades ago, a now-famous study explored the impact of expectations on students.(1) Teachers were told that certain students—randomly selected—were “high-potential learners.” The teachers weren’t given any evidence, just an expectation that these children would excel. And they did. Not because the children were inherently more gifted, but because the teachers treated them as if they were. They encouraged them more, offered more patience, more support, and more chances to succeed. The children rose to meet the level of belief placed upon them.
Our expectations don’t just shape how we see others. They shape how we treat others. And how we treat others influences who they become.
What’s true in our relationships is also true when we zoom out to entire communities and systems. If we see potential and possibility, we can imagine – and build – a brighter tomorrow.
I refuse to hand over the future to fear.
The end of this story has not yet been written. Every meaningful transformation in history began with someone who imagined something that didn’t yet exist. Someone who refused to accept “this is just the way things are.” Someone who allowed themselves to dream in color when everything looked gray.
Scientific discoveries, engineering breakthroughs, and social progress all began with a vision. A possibility. An image of “what if.” Some came through intentional design; others through surprise. But either way, imagination lit the spark.
Why should nation-building be any different?
We do not have to settle for a country defined by fear, scarcity, or suspicion. We can imagine – and design – one rooted in dignity, compassion, and shared thriving. That may sound bold, but bold is not the same as unrealistic. Bold becomes necessary when the stakes are high. And the stakes are very high right now.
So let’s imagine for a moment – not as escape, but as blueprint.
Imagine a country where everyone has enough – enough food, enough safety, and a place to call home. Where children don’t go to bed hungry, and no one has to choose between dinner and rent.
Imagine an education system that nurtures curiosity, possibility, and dignity in every child – not one that ranks children, but one that helps each child discover their gifts.
Imagine communities where people trust one another, where differences are not threats but invitations to deeper understanding. Imagine public spaces filled with laughter, music, conversation – a sense of being safe, welcomed, and part of something larger than oneself.
These aren’t pipe dreams. They are choices we can make together. These are expressions of love in public form.
None of these dreams require a miracle. They require will. They require imagination. And they require enough of us rejecting the narrative that we are powerless to shape what comes next.
You and I will probably need more than seven million others. How about seventy million other believers in a better future? Seventy million neighbors who share this dream, even if they’re silent right now. They may not be in the streets. They may be at home caring for a loved one. Sitting at a child’s soccer game. Working a double shift just to pay the rent.
They’re out there. Waiting for a crack in the seemingly impenetrable armor so they can come pouring out and join the throng.
Hope, right now, is a form of resistance. It says we are not done; we are not beyond repair. We are capable of more than we even dream possible when we come together.
I’m not asking you to deny the difficulty or pretend everything is fine. I’m asking you to imagine what becomes possible when we root ourselves in Love and act from that place.
If we want a world that reflects the best of us, we must live the best of us now, seeing light and love, even when hate and fear seem louder.
And we have to hold onto the vision long enough for it to take root.
I keep thinking back to that small group night. We didn’t walk out with a solution. The system didn’t change overnight. But something in the room shifted – not because the facts changed, but because our imagination did.
Hope didn’t erase the reality, it gave us the strength to meet it. And that is where change begins—not with certainty, but with enough people willing to hold a vision of what could be and take the next step toward it.
The future isn’t waiting for the perfect leader or the perfect moment. It’s waiting for us – ordinary people who dare to believe something better is possible and live as if it’s already on its way.
Hold onto a vision that is bigger than your fear. Speak it. Share it. Take one small action in alignment with it.
The story is still being written. The future bends toward love only when we put our hands on the arc.
We are the ones writing the next chapter. Let it be one shaped by Love.
Joni Miller, Ph.D., is a writer, researcher, spiritual coach, and speaker who uses her knowledge, education, and love of all things spiritual to help spiritual wanderers find a place they can call home, navigating by the light of Love. www.SpiritualGeography.net
Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/flock-of-birds-flying-above-the-mountain-during-sunset-70577/
(1) Read more about the study here: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/09/18/161159263/teachers-expectations-can-influence-how-students-perform
