What gives you hope? And what, if anything, makes you question hope? And what makes you question your questions of hope? #postaday2011

Hope is the feeling that the feeling you have isn't permanent.

Jean Kerr

Hope is the dream of a soul awake. 

French Proverb

Dum spiro, spero (Latin) While I breath, I hope.

Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Without hope there is little reason to move forward. What gives me hope is the knowing that whatever it is that I am experiencing - no matter how horrid or joyful - it will change and something will take it's place. Each life experience is an opportunity to learn more about me, about me in relation to others, and about life. Lessons come in a variety of ways - some with accomplishment, joy, happiness, and pleasure; and other with failure, sorrow, sadness, and pain. Both of these experiences are needed in the course of a lifetime. A person without sorrow really doesn't know joy. A person without failure really doesn't know accomplishment.  


Hope quotes like those at the beginning of this post have been my motivation to move ahead another day. When my children were younger, 7 and 4 years old, I took them to the highest hill (we lived on a prairie) at sunset and said, "No matter what kind of day you have had - be it good or be it not so good - there is one thing you can count on, the sun will set and the day will end." We would watch the sunset, talk about our day and swat mosquitoes. The next morning we would climb the same hill before the sun rose and as it came up over the bluff I would say, "This day is a gift. We have many possibilities for today. We decide how we react to the things that happen to us and we also decide how we treat others in our day. Let's make today a good day where we can and if this isn't possible, know that this day, like yesterday, will come to an end. If we are fortunate we will get another 'do over.' "


I don't question my hope. I know that the right thing, the good thing, the honest thing, the appropriate thing will always come ahead eventually. In the moments when this doesn't seem possible, I hand onto the examples of where this has been true in my life and I make sure I am doing the right thing, the good thing, the honest thing, the appropriate thing when and where I can.


Hope is a choice that I choose daily. Hope is an attitude that we can control - even when there isn't a glimmer of possibility...it will come if we hope.