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.

Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Why or why not? #postaday2011

Everything happens for a reason...because we want it to.
When we look back on the things we have survived we can make sense of what happened and why it happened. We can often times even be grateful it happened. That is the way of human beings - making sure we can find the "reason" for the unpredictable (and perhaps predictable) things that happen in our life. 


I don't believe that it all happens for a reason. I believe we look back and find a reason or find the logical explanation for why this, why now, why us. Most things that happen are just a coincident that we have no control over. The only thing we have control over - no matter how much we attempt to control the things in our lives - is our reaction to life. Viktor E. Frankl said it best:

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.  

There are those that need to feel that there is a life plan or a course that has been pre-determined for them. I would not argue or disagree with this opinion. This belief may be the only thing that allows some folks to wake up each morning and do the things they need to do. My perspective on my life is I am not a passive participant. I have a responsibility to myself to be prepared for the good, not so good, and horrid things that can happen...that just happen...that happen to many for no reason. I have the choice in my response to how life hits me. I have a responsibility to recognize the privilege, power, and opportunity that I possess and that are presented to me and to act in a manner that is socially just.