Having hope is optimism that something desirable will come to fruition. We often think of having hope as a really positive thing. If you want to find an inspirational quote about how to get through difficulty, hope is a word you will bump up against again and again.
What if losing hope, or at least using it, was a more helpful concept?
If you think about it, when you feel hopeful, your desire is just out of reach. When you are ‘hoping’ you are not ‘in the experience of’. Your eye is on the prize in the future. What happens to the tiny miracles unfolding right in front of you? What happens to the opportunities to act in the present when you are invested in hope’s promise for a specific outcome in the future? Are you willing to be complicit with taking the power out of the present moment?
I was asked this week to write something about hope. I initially thought of how optimistic I feel about spring. I always do; the new green, fresh earthy smell, longer days and knowing summer is on the way. I am particularly hopeful with what spring may bring with it this year; renewed freedom and the in-person gatherings I ache for. This is how I planned to write about hope. I then also started to think about how hopeful I was last March too for the same reason.
Gratefully, hope isn’t all I’ve had to sustain me since the spring of 2020; it would have worn very thin by now. I think sometimes this is the advice we are given when things are difficult, “have hope.” The thing is, hope doesn’t keep the person you love alive, it doesn’t get you your job back, or the relationship back. It doesn’t move you into the body you hope for or fill a gaping space of loneliness. Just like motivation isn’t enough to turn your goals into reality….hope isn’t enough to pull you through difficulty. To achieve anything requires a commitment to small steps. It is during those moments when you are present that add up to the hours, days, months and years that you have truly lived. Hope, like goals, help when the reality of the present moment is difficult but so too does acting in the moment and to being alive to the pain of the present in order to heal. Openness to exactly ‘what is’ in your life is an opportunity to let joy walk into the room with you right alongside whatever else you are dealing with.
Hope is overrated but I also believe it is inherently human and undeniably beautiful.
Hope can be a life raft but without a paddle, you’ll just float around. What if every time you feel hope’s pull toward the future, you use it as a signpost for where you intend to go but also as a reminder to steady yourself right where you are so that you make the choice, see the beauty, say the words, listen, taste and touch with your whole heart. Make where you are and who you are enough. Then, start paddling.
