Hope; The Game Changer In Life

There are many instances when people decide that they are at the end of their rope.   Those moments when things seem so overwhelming that nothing makes adequate sense and the feeling of drowning in the deepest part of the water appears to be imminent.  Yet, somehow those instances seem vanish with a flash of hope that always seems to come out of nowhere.  Keeping hope alive is a natural tendency and one that I would venture to say can be a daily element that permeates throughout our existence.  Just think about the possibility of not having any type of hope to cling on to.  What would the days and nights living in that type of environment feel like?  My guess is that your life would not be filled at all, but rather appear to be empty and void of something that was missing.  In order to see hope alive in its fullest sense, I challenge you to walk to a children's hospital ward, in particular those that may be suffering a life threatening illness.  I have rarely seen a child that is in the midst of pain and complete unknown about the future of their health, to be anything but optimistic.  Perhaps it is age and at their young circumstance, it may be very difficult to picture what life would be like if they did not put up a fight against what is ailing them.  In a young child, you always see the glow of possibility that is present as deep down inside they know that better days should be ahead.  As adults, we tend to forget what that type of powerful desire and expectation feels like.  It is very easy for any of us to be caught up in any storm that would deplete us of the energy that can come with having a desire that the best is yet to come.  Many people get mired in their circumstance in which they are at and forget that others around them may be having so many other catastrophic things happening to them, that they would pale in comparison to the situation they happen to find themselves in.  The ability to persevere through a challenge does not always feel very good, especially in the midst of darkness.  Wisdom shows us that if you can survive something extraordinarily tough once, then you should be able to do it again.  Think about the many instances in which you came to the end of the street where you saw no exit and how you waited with faith to find a beacon of light to show you the way.  It always comes, granted it never seems to be early.  What I have learned is that the difficult period is filled with knowledge to teach one about how not to repeat that particular lesson.  For me, hope is like the blood that pumps through one's veins in that it feeds and nourishes all parts of your body while allowing for the possibility that things can be even better in the future.  The next time you find yourself painted into a corner, think about what the great Mexican painter Frida Kahlo's famous words were with regard to hope, "I paint flowers so they will not die".  Sometimes hope and imagination may be the only things you have left to count on.