Here's to Hoping

While there is life, there is hope.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

When used as a noun, hope is a feeling of expectation or desire for something to happen.  As a verb, hope means to want something to occur.  Most importantly, hope comprises a permanent, fundamental aspect of human nature and lies deep within us whether or not we want it live there.  Over the centuries, philosophers, scholars, and writers have examined humanity's conflicted relationship with hope.  Great American statesmen, Benjamin Franklin said, "He that lives on hope will die fasting." While the father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther wrote, "Everything that is done in the world is done by hope."  I think writer, Francois de la Rochefoucauld best described the impact of hope on people by stating, "Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route."  Even though life harbors a tremendous amount of disappointment, the mere act of hoping keeps us strong, dynamic, and resilient. Holding onto hope, even though most dreams never see the light of day, makes living life a worthwhile endeavor. Hope sustains us through hard times, it allows us to look to the future with a sense of optimism, and it keeps us progressing, growing, and learning until we take our last breaths.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson

In my own humble opinion, hope constitutes a cornerstone of living well. When a person has hope, he or she possesses a resiliency that will allow them to keep growing, learning, dreaming and loving until death. I personally cherish the ability to hope.  I love the fact that even though life can be difficult, disappointing and even devastating, hope ameliorates these things.  Hope cushions heartache, it eases grief, and it keeps us from giving into despair. It forever puts on our horizon the ability to think in terms of the future being better, and thus makes us behave in a way that will allow that improvement to come to fruition.  Without hope, nothing great, or even good, can be accomplished.  It constitutes a necessary, constant companion for our hearts, our souls and our lives.  Without ever-present hope, we are nothing.

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world beyond the horizon.
Franklin D. Roosevelt