HOPE: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen
According to the dictionary, that’s what hope is. Expectancy. Something better is up ahead. Anticipation of good things yet to happen. After all, when was the last time you heard someone say, “I hope my car breaks down.” or “I’m planning my next vacation in Hawaii. I hope I get disgustingly sick on Maui.” Seriously?
When we hope, our minds overflow with ideas of something better yet to come. We say things like, “I hope you love your new place.” or “I hope you are back to perfect health tomorrow.” or “I hope you get to take extra time off for the holiday.”
There is something about me that you might not know. I write a lot of cards. It’s possible that if Hallmark ever goes out of business, it will be because I stopped writing cards. Of course, that’s a wildly exaggerated and unsubstantiated claim, but I hope you get the picture. See? Even now, I hope.
Hope is a word we use often. If we could record our conversations for an entire day, I wonder how many times we would count the word ‘hope’? But let’s not count.
In my cards and texts and emails and messages and conversations, the word hope is peppered throughout every paragraph. Hope.
Why does that word rise from the page? Why do the words, “I hope” flow so easily when others are difficult to say? Especially when the situation is tense, the prognosis is disheartening, the event is heavy with dread, we hope for any discernable sliver of good to come from it.
Hope: a feeling of expectation and desire for good things
Love is emotion, but love is also the foundation of character where hope is born. Love creates the environment from which hope springs.
When we love, we have hope. We hope because we love.
This article is part of 31 Days of Free Writes October 2018 where we write for 5 minutes based on a one-word prompt. The idea is to write something every day. I don’t quite make it every day – and I don’t quite make it in 5 minutes. I believe in progress, not perfection. I hope you enjoy reading other articles in this series.