We’ve been raised with a shallow version of hope. Limited as well, and postured as a virtue that positive people aspire to have.

This kind is ephemeral, easily expunged by the next headline. We’re told to “stay hopeful” as if it’s a mood we can control, a position of optimism we must maintain to be perceived as productive.

But with the spectre of collapse, that kind of hope is something we need to move beyond.

Real hope, the kind that survives dark times, is not about simply feeling good. It’s about staying aware when everything and everyone around us encourages unquestioning loyalty to systems and processes that we know aren’t working. It’s about not falling into despair without cloaking ourselves in denial. It’s about staying true to what matters, even when the outcome is uncertain.

You’ve probably felt it, even if you haven’t named it.

That sense that something’s wrong, not just in one area, but everywhere. Climate breakdown. Economic precarity. Social fragmentation. Cost of living rises. Housing crisis. Artificial intelligence. Political polarisation and unpredictability. Mental health spirals. A rise of grief, anxiety, and disorientation.

There are movements in nature that go against the obvious flow. Beneath the surface, quiet forces gather. A body turns not with the tide, but toward something older. Something remembered. Something necessary.

This journal is for those who feel that pull.