is to cease to live. Dostoevsky.
It has been said that people cannot live without hope. The dictionary defines hope as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” These expectations are usually positive.
To have hope is like having sunshine. We know that the sun will rise, but we don’t know what the sunrise will bring. We hope that it will bring us good things. It is that hope that allows us to get up in the morning. To not have that hope is a continuation of the darkness. and ultimately despair.
Mind you, hope is not optimism, even though most of what we hope for is positive. Optimism is based on the notion that enough evidence is out there to make you believe that a positive outcome will happen. Hope doesn’t have that evidence. Hope is ephemeral. Hope resides more in the heart. And because of that, hope is that much more powerful than optimism.
Optimism is in your mind, whereas hope is in your soul.
2 comments
Comment by ellipsesforever on February 8, 2014 at 7:45 pm
I love this, Phil! You’ve really kind of nailed down what hope is & where it comes from. That said, I struggle to keep hope alive. In the past, I’ve had all sorts of physical reminders around me to help keep hope alive…I’ve owned earrings that spelled out “hope”, I had paperweights, keychains, posters, all bearing the word “hope.” Just over a year ago, I started throwing those reminders away, because that’s what it felt like in my soul: hope was leaking out, flowing away, never to be replenished.
And then…every once in awhile I see something like this post. And it helps me to fight…to fight to hang on to hope, if only for a moment at a time.
Thanks for giving me my fighting lesson for today…
Comment by wormdude@gmail.com on February 8, 2014 at 8:05 pm
At times hope is so elusive to almost be nonexistent. But having hope is what keeps us going. Keep fighting. Hang on. Good things are coming. Thanks for commenting.