H.O.P.E. The power of this season.

 

H.O.P.E. The power of this season

 This is a powerful season. Always has been. It is a season that fights the darkness with light and hope. I saw an interesting acronym;

H.O.P.E.: Hang on. Pain Ends.

I was looking for some good quotes and images for this post, but gargle gave me mostly trite kitsch. While trying to find a transcript of the simple but effective text only speech of King Charles, I was inundated with ads. (If anyone has the patience to find a text only version I'd appreciate it).

His Christmas 2025 speech can be viewed here:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ciqg2W0T-8c

The history of the poster below is on Wikipedia.

During world War Two the Brits accomplished the impossible and won. The government put out various posters to motivate and encourage with the now ubiquitous Keep calm and carry on posters. Those type of subliminal messages address our subconscious and do work.

King Charles alluded to some of this history in his speech, speaking of the literal and figurative "journey" of our lives and geographic displacement. Whether he merely reiterated key words based on what he hears from the public I do not know.

Hope, courage, resilience, bravery, compassion and Respect (which he mentioned at least twice) are the key words for 2026. Words matter, but become meaningless if there is no action. 

We will have to give eachother light through deeds. Help eachother and offer more than meaningless words. Step out of our own communities and give light, because it is no longer Christmas business as usual. We've done it for hundred thousands of years during the winter months. That is the power of this season.