But, it's also the only thing left from that previous life.

I like to turn that hopeful imagining onto bible stories. It's kind of a meditation practice an old Jesuit priest led me in once. It's what some Jewish scholars do when their stories no longer make sense (like when, in the Binding of Isaac, Isaac becomes a tragic hero to make sense of the Holocaust/Shoah.)

Anyway, there's something powerful in turning a story/narrative that has lost meaning into something powerful, like you've described.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant but it is most important that you do it.

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

Jurgen Moltmann writes that "the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present." Christ assures us that "in this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world."

We do what we can and then, by God's grace and power, we do what we never thought we could. And that is all we can do. And it is everything we must do.

As far as optimisim vs. pessimism, I have always appreciated Newbigin's quote: I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

I couldn't agree more. Thanks for your thoughts.