It’s been a long week! Here in Australia, we’re heading into winter, so the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and colds and flus abound. So my question this week is:
What gives you hope?
When I started to think about this question, I was surprised to realize that there are quite a few things that give me hope.
Anak Krakatau gives me hope
Of course, volcanoes are extremely destructive, but they also create new life: they make new landmasses, and the clouds of volcanic dust they create spread on the wind to enrich the soil of other, existing landmasses, making them more fertile. Volcanoes literally create the Earth (well, the crust, anyway). What’s not hopeful about that?!
On a purely scientific basis, I find the machinations of volcanoes awe-inspiring—the lava flows, the magma, the pumice, the temperatures, the eruptions, the pyroclastic clouds! The fact that I can barely get my head around what I know of volcanism (let alone what I can’t) also gives me a sense of hope: there is so much stuff I don’t know, and it’s all out there waiting to be discovered!
Okay, I’ll calm down about the volcanoes. What about you? What gives you hope?
About georgina
A strong foundation of faith has always awakened hope inside me when going through times of trial, desperation or sadness. Having faith that life is sometime beyond our control but in the hands of a greater power that works all things out for our good can give you peace of mind as well as the strength to carry on when you lack strength.
yes,Amen
Hi Georgina,
I never thought about volcanoes like that! Thanks for opening my eyes!
For me, Babies give me hope. A couple years ago I went to a baby naming for a friends little girl. During the ceremony the Rabbi said that babies are a sure sign that God hasn’t given up on us yet. I liked that 🙂
xoxo
Jennefer
God and my religious foundation give me hope. 🙂
Amen to that 🙂
i have no hope
only conviction
of myself i can do nothing
but with Christ beside me all things are possible
I find hope in my own ability to solve problems and deal with life.
I find hope in libraries. It just amazes me that there is so much to learn about and discover in the world and that people are interested in so many different things.
And, watching little kids put on school shows. Gets me every time. 🙂
That’s a great one. I love walking through libraries and bookstores just to browse. It definitely inspires me.
For me all hope springs forth from the author of life, God. When you have a relationship with the living God, Jesus Christ, hope is a commodity that can never run out.
It took me a long, long time to figure out that I can’t give myself hope, no one else can give me hope but the One who created me gives me hope.
Similar to your idea of Volcanoes – I moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 2001 and found the scenery breathtaking. Waking up each morning to the view of mountains and then looking out of my office window across to the North Shore – I found the majestic landscape so full of hope and more importantly – perspective. It is nigh on impossible to wallow in misery and self absorbed anxiety when you are inspired by that kind of scene. Even on the cloudy, rainy days I knew the mountains were there long before me, and would be still there long after me. Puts my life in proportion and gave me amazing hope. Now I live in Toronto, Ontario and I no longer have the mountains to inspire me but any magnificent scenery still holds that hope for me.
Might be cheesy, but I really get filled with hope when I think about love. Waiting for the “one” to come and getting that rush of inspiration and joy, and even all the other emotions that come with it. Just that ability to amplify and feel things.
That gives me hope.
Actually, and this may sound odd, but I find that I gain more hope by just forcing myself to write about my yearning to feel hope – even if I do it from a starting position that hope is something lacking. Of course, I shouldn’t be too depressed or anything from the outset, otherwise I’ll just end up writing about why everything IS hopeless. There’s a delicate balance here and I am not sure I can quite formulate what it is. I just know that it’s there. And it’s positive, because it means that hope can come to me when I need it, if I just start focusing on it, even if I don’t know where to find it, even if I don’t know what form it might take.
For example, yesterday I read a piece on Alzheimer’s on a blog, how somebody was struggling with her parents having this illness, and I felt very humbled by being reminded of such a situation. I also felt apprehension because my own mother in particular often talks about how she feels like ‘she is forgetting more and more’. I know she only means it as a joke, yet, but how would I be able to cope if it was not a joke? Many elderly people in my family have also suffered from Alzheimer’s.
So this morning I tried – for the nth time – to formulate my thoughts in writing about how to hold on to hope, most importantly the hope that life can be filled with happiness even if there most assuredly will come more ‘dark periods’ as well. I didn’t really come up with a definite answer (big surprise eh?). But because I *have* had some strong experiences of hope myself, particularly in recovering from anxiety and depression in my own life, I was at least able to ‘zoom in’ on the feelings – that yes, even if things can be really, really terrible there is *always* some hope that you can come to feel better, that you can ‘come through’. Hope may come in many different forms but it is always there.
In the concrete example – as regards of my sudden fear for what may happen to my own parents when they grow really old (they are already in their sixties) – I wrote about it for myself and then ended up with this feeling:
‘Well, if the worst comes to pass – I feel I can survive it, even if there are going to be a lot of scars’. As I noted, I’ve been ill myself for a long time and I have felt both comfort when trying to reach out in prayer, though without knowing who specifically to pray to, and when reaching out to old friends I thought had long forgotten me and who suddenly came back into my life to support me.
It doesn’t mean that life will be a dance on roses, obviously, just that it’s my experience there’s always something hopeful to focus on – that makes me feel like it’s worth going on – and it gets easier to mobilize that feeling the more I practice.
But the truly remarkable experience I’ve had in my life is that it’s enough to invite in the feeling of hope if you just begin to think about it!
Aloha Christopher,
Its not odd at all. In fact, I found your story very touching and that alone gives me “hope”..:)
You can certainly see your skills within the article you write.
The arena hopes for more passionate writers such as
you who aren’t afraid to mention how they believe.
All the time follow your heart.