Hold On, Press Eagerly

Yeah, OK, it's a sappy acronym for HOPE.  HOPE is something that is in short supply in a lot of places. Disasters, economic crises, pandemics that morph and evolve, the collapse of governments, wars ending in calamity, and wars starting.

How are we supposed to keep hope in the face of such calamities and uncertainty?

Here's the funny thing about hope. It doesn't even require vapors to keep going. You can have it without any external evidence at all.   You don't have to feel it.  You don't have to pursue it. It simply is.

Wikipedia says, "Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large."

One of the few things that we can manipulate for our own good is our state of mind. If we have nothing else, we have reasonable confidence that we can and do make some choices with effectiveness. It may only be deciding when to get up, what to wear, or what to eat, and almost always, there are many more.

The more we are willing to simply expect positive outcomes just as we expect the sun to rise and set every day. If we can expect this, surely we can expect positive outcomes--even if they seem momentarily utterly beyond our reach.

We can press eagerly, even if eagerly varies from one day to the next. Choosing hope activates a tiny seed. Like any good gardener, there are ways to water, nourish and tend this seed as it grows and becomes a sturdy vine that supports your growth.