The 5 Frontiers of Hope

Hope isn’t passive. It’s not some gauzy filter or fluffy feeling. It’s a lens. A stance. A refusal to let cynicism have the last word.

I’ve been thinking a lot about hope these past few months—how it behaves more like a puppy than a philosophy. It needs regular walks. It needs play. It needs us to keep showing up, even when we’d rather hide under the duvet.

Because let’s be real: the turbulence is only ramping up. And if we want to stay even half-sane, half-kind, and half-tethered to what matters, hope is going to need some serious airtime.

Hope isn’t one-dimensional. It’s got layers. Textures. At least five distinct frontiers, from what I can tell. And when I neglect any one of them for too long, I feel it. In my gut. Like dread quietly unpacking its suitcase. So like that puppy - our hope needs daily exercise. 

This isn’t about doing all you can at any cost.. It’s about tending to the conversations—internal and external—that keep us tethered to what’s real, and what’s possible.

I call it hope. But you might call it love. Or connection. Or the sacred art of giving a damn. Whatever it is—it’s the antidote to now. 

For me,working intentionally across  these dimensions is keeping me well, above the line and available for others.  

First Frontier – Inner Alchemy
This is the deep work. The slow inner transformation.

Trying on new worldviews. Unlearning disconnection. Reconnecting with your body. Feeling your feelings, even the gnarly ones. Listening to your gut, literally and figuratively.
It’s a personal revolution. The shift that happens in your nervous system when you start believing healing is possible—and that you're not broken after all. The outer world might be, but it can be healed from the inside out. And you are its agent in that healing.

Let your dangerous questions, smouldering dissatisfaction and your bubbling rage lead the way. 

Second Frontier – Personal Alignment
This is hope in motion.

Making choices in your daily life that pull you into greater integrity with what you believe.
What you eat. How you rest. What you say no to. What you create. How you spend money. How you spend time.
It’s not about perfection. It’s about living more aligned, more liberated, more fully yourself.

This kind of Hope  looks like doing the kind and inconvenient thing.

Third Frontier – Collective Change
This is where your voice joins with others.

Hope gets louder here, it picks up a pen and writes to your MP. It Joins a movement. Marches to parliament. Organises a screening. Bravely  explores nuance with friends. Works on creating alternatives with others. Shows up to the local meeting even when there are people in there who get your heckles up. This is about applying pressure, figuring things out in community, raising the volume, and reminding each other that the world doesn’t shift on its own. It moves when enough people carry small parts of it.

Hope is a shared activity.

Fourth Frontier –Tend the in-between
Hope is relational.

It grows in the space between things—between people, species, ideas.
This is about tending the connections. The mycelium under our feet. The bees. The microbes in your gut.The weather systems overhead. The pause between the breath in and the breath out,  It’s about growing your capacity for complexity, and noticing the things between. Paying more heed to the causes than the effect. 

It’s about seeing the system that has shaped the individual.  It asks that you adopt a dictator, Imagining them as a child, seeing their lack of loving attention as children twisted them, how unchecked power distorted them, and then asks that you  bless them while you brush your teeth. This kind of hope can watch the world disintegrate, knowing that it must be composted, so that it can feed the microbes of the emergent world. 

This is where love gets weird, spacious, and deeply strategic. 

Final Frontier – Future Dreaming
Imagination is a political act.

This is where we stretch the frame. This version of hope calls on us to envision a world that’s fairer, more connected, more beautiful. It starts as a whisper. A sketch. A poem. A provocation. It grows through culture, through art, through bold and messy courageous dreaming.

Hope says: dare to dream.
That’s where my Dare Dreaming practice fits in.

So my friend, I wonder which fronts you are active on and which fronts you might be willing to explore? Do you have actions or reflections that you would like to report back about? I would love to hear from you. 

X Megan

P.S  I am thinking of hosting a group so that we can explore these frontiers - reply back if you think that sounds like something you would be interested in participating in.

P.P.S I am always gathering your feedback - so if you have something to say or share - you can use this quick survey.

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