Hope

Hope is a curious descriptor. We use it a lot in the English language:

• I hope you will be on time
• I hope I can pull this off
• I'm hoping for a miracle here
• I hope you haven't given up
• I hope I will get better
• I really hope you're not going to do that
• You should have hope that you will get better
• You can hope for better times

Many times the use of the word is more about expressing a desire for an outcome or as a way to put out your expectations for someone. At other times, it is a way to try and express sympathy or compassion for another person. Sometimes, it is about our own internal struggle to come to understand or accept a situation we find ourselves in. There are times we are expressing a fantasy for something to be better even though we don't really believe it is possible (I can only hope things are going to get better). 

Some even see it as an acronym - Hold On Pain Ends.

Hope cannot be given. It must be found from within. Hope can be supported. When there is true hope, it is the energy from which healing can soar; adjustment occurs and acceptance arises. Truly, that is a journey from the self. It is an injustice to try to impose hope upon someone who struggles. It is their pathway to discover.

For hope to matter, the person must believe in it. No matter how others see it - only the individual can decide upon hope.

Hope

Hope confuses

It comes and goes

Like an unpredictable friend

When it arrives

The clouds break up

And blue sky is again seen

But it won't stay 

Clouds and grey sky will return

Hope confuses

It is truth

It is also fiction

Some offer it up

So pain will be more bearable

That is a fiction

Some hold it out

To support change

But this too is a fiction

So how am I to know

When hope is truth

And worthy of loyalty

It is only when I find it

When it shows itself to me

So it is not confusing

But its true nature

© Peter Choate, 2016