By definition:

–noun
1. loss of hope; hopelessness.
2. someone or something that causes hopelessness: He is the despair of his mother.

–verb (used without object)
3. to lose, give up, or be without hope (often fol. by of): to despair of humanity.

–verb (used with object)
4. Obsolete. to give up hope of.

Despair is quite an extreme. It’s very hard to work away from this point, basically because you have lost everything even hope. Imagine that! Losing your money, then job, then friends, then family, then you have to work up again… but when you have lost even hope, for a lot of people it’s even worth it. It is no surprise that suicide rates are so high among groups that lose so much at such an alarmingly rapid rate.

How can you help someone who has lost it all, and is now knee deep in despair?

Our Healing Tree has become very popular and full of significances. It seems to mean many different things for different groups of people. But as much as the metaphor of the Healing Tree, the words are always the same words.

Everyone can see these same words, but they can also take on different meanings depending on the angle we look at them. We thought it would be great to dissect and analyze each word, as a group project; us and anyone else comfortable with leaving their opinions and comments.

We have a total of 27 words that we are going to discuss. This page will always be here and will be updated after we jump to the next word.

1. Trust - We are now discussing this word HERE
2. Confrontation- We are now discussing this word HERE
3. Forgive - We are now discussing this word HERE
4. Despair - We are now discussing this word HERE
5. Equal
6. Resentment
7. Hope
8. Racism
9. Reconcile
10. Unity
11. Agreement
12. Abuse
13. Destruction
14. Healing
15. Trauma
16. Work Together
17. Stereotype
18. Denial
19. Mending
20. Tradition
21. Tension
22. Honor
23. Hate
24. Love
25. Shame
26. Believe
27. Culture