An Essay by Dave Pendle

originally published on Medium

I’m always a little wary of the word hope (I wrote a short piece called Hope-less a few months ago). So when I began reading Dave Pendle’s essay, I was curious to see where he might take it.

As it unfolded, I found the movement he describes — from Active Hope to Existential Trust — deeply familiar. I’ve often sensed that hope, as it’s commonly held, can become a blind spot to clear perception: a subtle leaning into the future that draws energy away from direct participation in what’s here. But the way Dave speaks of hope as participation — as a muscle of perception that strengthens our alignment with life’s regenerative intelligence — beautifully reframes the term.

His Existential Trust corresponds closely to what I’ve been exploring under the phrase Being Available: a radical receptivity, a willingness to act without certainty while trusting the unfolding of life itself. I tend to begin from that trust directly — emptying even the impulse to hope and simply offering myself to the current already moving, while sensing glimmers of inherent potential in each moment.

It’s fascinating how different words can carry a shared meaning — how what matters most is not the terminology but the current of experience that gives rise to it. When language becomes transparent in this way, resonance replaces cognition, and we find ourselves moved by the same stream.

Dave’s essay invites us not only to reflect on the field of becoming, but to enter it.

You can read it HERE, and also access Dave’s other pieces...

Entering the Field of Becoming