\u201cHope is the quiet conviction that what happens us does not have to define us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0. . Anonymous<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hope is a choice. That\u2019s how I view it. Viktor Frankl, neurologist, psychologist, and famously a concentration camp survivor, said, \u201cLet us not fall prey to what we fear, but rather live into the
direction of hope.\u201d During the three years of his imprisonment, he was moved to four different camps and in each one, he observed that for the most part, survivors were people who had found some hope for the future.<\/p>\n
The above is an extreme example but if Mr. Frankl could find it there, we can find it in the uncertainty of our world today. Spiritually, I don\u2019t see hope as the absence of despair, but the willingness to remain open to light in the midst of darkness.<\/p>\n
Desmond Tutu said, \u201cHope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are just so many things that seem hopeless and dire. Many of them we cannot change but we can find a different way to hold them in our hearts. Hope is not only a way to look into the future. Having hope can remind us that things can change all on their own in an instant if we keep our hearts open and look for a path that will nurture and support us.<\/p>\n
In many cases, we\u2019re so used to expecting the worst, we start grieving it before it even gets here. My mother used to say to me, \u201cDon\u2019t get your hopes up. You might get disappointed.\u201d Was disappointment lethal? Did it make sense to avoid feeling good because I might feel badly in the not too distant future? That is how I was programmed and I continue to do deep work to turn it around. When I feel discouraged and hopeless, optimism doesn\u2019t just land in my lap. I have to name how I feel, stand back for a moment and search for a different way to look at life. I have to search for hope. I don\u2019t do this to be seen as spiritual. I don\u2019t do this so people will like me. I choose hope because it makes me feel better.<\/p>\n
Alice in Wonderland, who fell down the rabbit hole into an unfamiliar and backward world, said to herself, \u201cThere\u2019s no use trying. One simply can\u2019t believe in impossible things.\u201d But before she found her way back home, she learned to believe in the extraordinary and embrace the fantastical.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not suggesting that having a positive outlook means that everything will turn out well or that hoping will make it so. What I am suggesting is that when we give up the illusion that our life will unfold exactly the way we want it to, if we dare to imagine a kinder future without being rigid about it, we can find some peace in the moment, no matter what\u2019s happening. Why waste precious time imagining the worst when you can hope for positive changes that you can\u2019t see yet? One of the few things that never changes is the fact that everything changes. The pendulum continues to swing back and forth and with a little patience, we can see that hopelessness can turn into hope. Fear can turn into courage. Anger can turn into compassions.<\/p>\n
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, \u201cWe must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.\u201d That sounds like a tall order but if we allow ourselves to be present, we can find a way to detach from unhealthy delusions and accept the possibility of a desired reality. We can see our situation, good or bad, as a stepping stone to improve our lives and calm our nerves. We can nurture the part of us that feeds our heart and soul with the possibility of goodness and courage in hard times.<\/p>\n
In ancient Greek mythology, Pandora is named as the first mortal woman created by the gods. The myth goes that the all powerful god Zeus gave her a mysterious box and admonished her not to remove the lid. She tried to obey but her curiosity got the better of her. She opened the box and all manner of evils and miseries were unleashed into the world. When she realized what was happening, she quickly closed the lid and the only thing left was hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One interpretation is that the evils that Pandora let loose represent the obstacles and difficulties in our
lives today, while hope represents the optimism and resilience required to cope with and overcome these challenges. In the philosophy of Buddhism, hope is not a way to go unconscious or live on the future. It is a way to endure the present moment with courage and optimism.<\/p>\n
Having hope doesn\u2019t mean trying to change the inevitable. It means accepting what is and making room for a more satisfying way to live. In my case, it helps me stop telling myself scary stories. It not only lightens my soul. It not only frees me from despair. It also sparks my imagination. It shows me the light in the darkness. It shows me openings where I thought there were none. When we embrace this way of thinking, we can find light in the darkest of thoughts.<\/p>\n
We all need something to hope for.<\/p>\n
John Lennon wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may say that I\u2019m a dreamer but I\u2019m not the only one.<\/p>\n
I hope someday you\u2019ll join us and the world will live as one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cHope is the quiet conviction that what happens us does not have to define us.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0. . Anonymous \u00a0 Hope is a choice. That\u2019s how I view it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2898,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions\/2898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}