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.