When you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, there is still something you can eat today.
HOPE.
It costs nothing, weighs nothing, and sometimes it is the only bread left on the table.
HOPE…the poor man’s bread, as it has often been called.
How many times have we eaten of this bread?
I know I have.
And I suspect before our journeys are finished, every one of us will eat our share.
We say, “Prepare for the worst, but HOPE for the best.”
I HOPE so.
Because until we arrive at that place of satisfaction, resolution, healing or understanding, hoping helps with coping.
Sometimes we need to snack on hope just to get through the day.
TAKE AWAY HOPE AND YOU MOPE
Be careful about dismissing hope in another person.
And especially careful about taking it away from them.
Hope sustains people.
It allows us to continue under circumstances that are less than favorable because it leaves the door open for something else to happen.
Something can change.
Someone can arrive.
An answer can appear.
Tomorrow can look different from today.
Take hope away and another visitor comes knocking.
DESPAIR
Despair literally speaks of being without hope.
The rope appears to have reached its end.
Nothing ahead.
Nothing left.
Nothing coming.
But I have learned something about life:
What appears to be the end from where we are standing may only be the limit of what we can presently see.
That is an important difference.
Don’t confuse what you cannot SEE with what cannot BE.
HOPE IS A SANCTUARY
Hope gives us somewhere to rest while circumstances are still working themselves out.
It is a place of positive contemplation.
A place to sit for a moment.
A chance to assess before moving again.
Sometimes life presents something that appears overwhelming.
I get it.
But don’t let it get you.
You don’t have to solve everything this minute.
You don’t even have to know HOW it will be solved.
Sometimes your job is simply to leave enough room for hope to remain in the room.
GIVE UP THE REIGN
There are moments when we interfere with life because we are frightened.
We pull back.
We tighten our grip.
We demand an answer immediately.
But sometimes the horse has already begun its leap.
Let it jump.
There comes a point when you have done what you can do and must allow something greater than your own will to participate.
Just when something seems unbearable, a ray of sunshine can appear.
A pause.
An opening.
A person.
An idea.
A telephone call.
A change in circumstances.
A little signal that dawn may be approaching and the storm has nearly played itself out.
HOPE CALLS OUT
Hope keeps doors open.
Life.
Opportunity.
Possibility.
Grace.
Help.
Even luck, if you want to call it that.
Hope does not guarantee that events will unfold exactly as we demand.
That isn’t hope.
That’s control wearing hope’s clothing.
Real hope says:
“I don’t know how this is going to work out…but I am leaving room for something I cannot presently see.”
That is powerful.
To remain hopeful is to beckon a solution to join you.
THE SOUL NEEDS SOMETHING TO EAT
We spend considerable time feeding the body.
We feed our ambitions.
We feed our bank accounts.
We feed our opinions, worries, appetites and plans.
What are we feeding the soul?
Hope is soul food.
Faith is soul food.
Love is soul food.
Charity is soul food.
Gratitude is soul food.
These things nourish an interior part of us that money cannot reach.
And when circumstances temporarily remove everything else from the table…
there can still be bread.
THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE
How many times have we heard someone ask:
“Is there any hope?”
Sometimes medicine has done everything it can.
Sometimes money cannot solve it.
Sometimes intelligence cannot figure it out.
Sometimes our strength has simply run out.
And that may be precisely where hope becomes most valuable.
Hope does not require that I know the ending.
It only asks that I refuse to declare the story finished before it is finished.
So if today finds you somewhere between a prayer and an answer…
eat.
There is bread on the table.
Its name is HOPE.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
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