Hope, Life's Necessary Little Ingredient

If I asked you to define "Hope" into words, what would you say?  Myself, I'd have to answer "it's something you can't see, but feel..a belief in a positive outcome".  A more "clinical" answer  may say that it is distinct from positive thinking, referring toa therapeutic or systematic process used in psychology for reversing pessimism.  So, why am I not sold on that definition?  I think it's because hope is as unique to me as it is to each and every person.

When Barack Obama was still a senator yet vying for office of the President of the United States he wrote a book "The Audacity of Hope."  People must have bought into it because it became a bestseller on the New York Times List and was endorsed by none other than Oprah Winfrey.  The title of the book, Obama stated, was from a sermon delivered by his favorite pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and his pastor was inspired to name his sermon "Hope" from a GF Watts painting, the subject of the painting described as "with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music and praise God...in other words, to take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope, which is the real word of God." 

I have not read Obama's book, I merely wondered if the title of the book struck a chord amongst millions of people who had..lost hope.  All politicians, especially those vying for public office seem to include the word "hope" in their speeches, and for good reason, too.  In the face of our economy, mortgages in default, job loss..hope is sometimes all that we have left.  I'm not sure that politicians can deliver on the definition of hope and I'm pretty sure many people will say it's government that has influenced hope (or lack thereof) with current economic status.  Maybe hope should be a sacred term used only when a politician is intent upon a "positive outcome actually occurring."

A famous Benjamin Franklin quote reads.. "I hope...that mankind will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats; for in my opinion there never was a good war, or a bad peace."  I'm pretty sure he was referring the state of the union at that time, yet his words are still relevant today even though the same wars are not being fought, they are different ones.

Adversity transcends time and is everywhere; it cannot be escaped.   Hope says to adversity, "so why not try to figure out a way to use adversity for your own advantage"?

Emily Dickinson wrote a poem about hope, it goes like this:

Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson defines hope by comparing it to a bird - which, if my English Class had any impact at all, means this is a metaphor.  Hope is a "thing" because it is a feeling. When she talks about the bird "singing", the tune is "without words"...Is hope a matter of words or is it a feeling about the future, a feeling which consists of both desire and expectation.  Psychologically, is it true that hope never fails us, that hope is always possible?  I think Emily Dickinson was trying to describe hope using  a poem much like songwriters and authors have done throughout time.  Sometimes, a reminder of what hope is, even through the a poem or a song is enough to restore it within our souls.

I've yet to find a definition that is compact and completely clear.  Most definitions are thought out references of where hope has been written about in a book, sung about in a song, rhymed in a poem or exemplified in life experience.   I remember a book I read called "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch.  If you have read the book, you know that this was written initially for his children to remember him by.  Yet, along the way, he did something really unique.  He inspired each of us with his story by sharing everything he was going through and the things life taught him (or didn't teach him) along the way.  He was dying from pancreatic cancer, he knew he wouldn't survive, yet I really believe that he held onto hope and faith regardless of the outcome.  I wondered to myself, how did he hold onto hope when he knew he would not survive?   I mean, he was an engineer and engineers need science and theory to back up every theorum.  So, it seems that Hope is a real entity necessary in the lives of each and every one of us, yet I am no better at describing hope to you.  I can only point it out and reference it as it permeates everyday life and is present in countless aspects of popular culture phenomenon such as jokes, fairy tales, politics and daily life.

I googled Hope and found it is the Seal of Rhode Island and features an anchor below the word "Hope", the state motto.  This is taken from a Biblical passage in Hebrews 6:19(1).
1 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; The King James Version.

Wiki recommends "See Also" - Chance (disambiguation), Disappointment, Fear, Optimism, Risk, unrequited love, Statue of Hope.   I could google away all day on the topic of hope, but it seems to draw me to site after site of references to Hope without an actual, concrete definition.  Or maybe, just maybe, I'm looking for an answer that suits me...maybe I aready know the answer and I don't realize it. 

I definitely think that hope is some positive outcome (whether we see it that way at the time or not) predicated on uncertainty.  It is a word that describes a feeling of being unsure about a current circumstance and then essentially desiring an outcome that is good.  Hope is based on faith, hope and faith are almost interchangeable.  Faith is more "now" and hope describes "positive outcomes based on our fears".  To be left without hope leaves us feeling deflated and without purpose.  Faith is the knowing peace that the outcome is for the better, again whether we see the reason at the time we may not know.  Hope is an idea that is spread through an understanding that one one is perfectly sure there is a sound outcome to their situations.  Hope is a destination, so to speak, rather than an actuality.  This is about as close as I can come to describing hope in my own words.  Hope and Faith - you cannot see them, they are like the breeze blowing on your face, you feel it...you just cannot tangibly see it.

I think about hope and faith a lot in my life lately.  Sometimes, hope and faith are the most tangible things we have.  Each of us has had moments in our lives where we have felt hopeless at one time or another and my wish is that these moments are few and far between.   The holidays are fast approaching.  I think each of us has the capability to provide a definition of "hope" in someone's life by giving.  I don't mean financially giving, I mean by passing on the spirit of the definition of hope, which clearly is undefined as a whole, yet is present in each of our lives as much as faith.  Are random acts of kindness hope and faith? I don't know the answer myself, but I think each and every one of us holds a unique definition of hope with faith and that we have the ability to inspire that in those around us, each and every day if we choose to.  Adversity is everywhere; it cannot be escaped...so why not try to figure a way to use adversity for your own advantage?  I think I'd rather hear a policitican say those words in a campaign speech instead of using Hope to tease us into thinking they can provide us with the answer, because, in the end, they cannot...but we can.

Becoming In Sync With Your Passionate Side

I truly believe that we all have a deep-seated memory that whispers within us that tells us why we were born and what we came into this wonderful life to experience. I also perceive this embedded echo within our soul as our "true voice" which is the guidance we follow to life out our life's passion. As grow older; however, marry, have children, work/family responsibilities the white-noise in our daily lives pushes our "true voice" back somewhere, so far away, that we cannot hear it anymore. The result? We become less passionate in our lives or worse yet, forget what our passions once were.

So...why bother finding passion?

What's the point in identifying passion in our lives and living these out? I guess you have to ask yourself if you believe that your life is truly filled with joy, meaning and improves your health, relationships, self-image, creativity and maybe even your income?

Understanding or being in touch with what we are passionate about helps find a source of joy, inner peace, inspiration, success, improves our relationships with others and points us in the direction of a positive outlook.

In the book, The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch he made a number of compelling observations in his own life...one of which was something like this.. "Brick walls are there to help us know how bad we want something?" I added the question mark so you might ask yourself if this is true..and I think it is.

Passion Has Its own energy... Passion is a gift of the spirit combined with the totality of all the experiences we have lived through...each of us is endowed with the power to live and communicate with unbridled enthusiasm. Passion is most evident when the mind, body and spirit work with each other to create, develop and articulate feelings and ideas. Passion will enable you to overcome obstacles (real or imagined) and to see the world as a place of infinite potential.

You cannot fake passion...we sense it in the lack of sincerity, authenticity or lack of quality in a product...the power of passion forces us to see others for who they are, who they are becoming and often...and unfortunately, who they can never be.

Many men and women run from personal or professional passion for fear of being hurt. Past experiences dwell deep within each of us as a reminder of the searing pain of being hurt or burned and rears its ugly head in relationships, love and work. Sometimes, we become afrraid to take risks that come with living life to its fullest.

Most people, I think, when they have touched the fringes of true passion in their lives, if only for the briefest moment, at the most unexpected juncture in their lives, having the chance to inhale the "aroma of chance", "caressed themselves with the true passion of genuine affection"...we experience a glimpse of what passion has the potential to claim in our lives..

Which is frightening...

And some choose not to return to passion, staying far away, opting for the...predictable existence without passion.

Rather than taking a leap of faith...

Immersing yourself in the waters of the deepest joys...

Insisting instead on the safest "bubble"

That becomes...a sanitary, loveless, lifeless, colorless world where nothing new ever happens...day after day..month after month...year after year....until we forget what passion in our lives has the potential to become...

Imagine...instead....how much more meaningful your life would be with passion...as a person, as a lover, as a friend, as a business owner, employee, writer, artist, musician, husband, wife....

Imagine, for a moment...a world where we lived for the moment, spending more time enjoing reality than trying to escape it...a place where we don't need lawyers to stand before judges, psychologists to tell us we have emotional problems, or clergy to talk to the God on our behalf...

Living With Passion...Daily... The real sin in life is lacking the courage to express our convictions and zest for life....it should be a crime to bottle up passion you have once felt in order to "bottle it up" in a controlled fashion of literal non-existence.

In fact, I can't think of a worse existence than one where we are unable or refusing the things in life that need to be said, not singing what needs to be sung or forcing ourselves to no longer feel what was intended to be felt.

PASSION..shapes our existence and fuels the fire of inspiration and makes the heart and mind open up to change. It is fuel for the soul...a spark that illuminates our purpose.

Passion is yours to experience and revel in...even if it causes you to fall down and scrape your elbow ..in this world called "life", passion is your birthright..it is within you..it is yours to discover and master...it is yours to share with the world to make it a better place.

Passion...in love...is sparked by desire, fueled by love, sustained by hope, and re-defines itself over time to become stronger, deeper and more satisfying...passion in love is necessary to maintain a solid relationship between a man and a woman. When one or both loses passion, a significant link is broken and if broken over a long period of time becomes buried in the mundane activities of daily life until it dims to literal non-existence. Passion in love is what drew a man and a woman together in the first place...love is what sustains passion over time and differentiates itself between the impatience and "have to have it now" demands of lust. A relationship without passion, changes the definition of love and instead of being "in love"...we co-exist with love for another..they are two very different things much like empathy and sympathy. Living a lifetime without passion can seem more of a dull existence or become a "sentence" than choosing one with passion.

Passion in our daily lives with work or creative outlets is fuled by passion. Many people walk through the phases of life where their ideals, goals and desires change...everyone has a "fuel" for living..it is not something that is slapped into our genes by evolution (also known as survival)...we all want to survive! What is survival though if we are unfulfilled? What are we passionate enough about to feed our souls? At some point in life, each and every one of us may ask the silent question... what is my purpose? This is probably one of the most well-known rhetorical questions of the universe.

Writing is a creative outlook I have developed a passion for over the years..it is only recently I made the conscious choice to find my "true voice", buried deep within years of practiced "blocking" to accomplish the goal of meeting survival needs in my own life (providing income, child-rearing, maid, nurse, friend, mother, daughter, employee....). I ask myself, just how difficult is it to take a giant leap of faith, to listen keenly to a voice that has become so distant it is a soft whisper...to begin to hear it come closer and more audible?

Living Passion ....Discover what matters the most to you...passion is what you hunger to do, life is your blank canvas to create a masterpiece. Make the decision to choose in FAVOR of passion...opportunities that come your way, make a selection in the honor of your passion in your personal life and your work life.

Understand that we all have limitations, fears, moments of confusion and paths to take to arrive at chosen or preferred destinations...it takes time to heal, to transform ourselves to achieve these objectives. Rather than stall in your tracks...find the resources that will reveal the passions for your ideal life.