Hope

You’ll like to think that after time, that there is a certain level of predictability in the events that happen around and in the people that you know, especially those who are close to you. I guess the fact remains that it’s something that you HOPE for, than a guarantee. You want assurance that life will go on, problems can be solved, promises will be fulfilled and somehow things will turn out right. That people will not disappoint you, that trust will not be betrayed, that friends will be loyal, that what you have today will still be yours tomorrow.

I still do hope.

But there are disappointments. Things don’t always turn out the way you want them to. Promises are not always kept, not all problems have resolutions, and nothing is permanent.
Yes, life still goes on, unquestionably, which is the irony. Or the blessing? For the pain that we go through each time, with questions that have no answers, and each time we try to grapple with understanding that is far beyond us, the sun still rises the next day.

When you wonder what hope there is, what there is to look forward to — there are no answers. But eventually, hope returns. And you dare to hope again, perhaps a little more careful that the last time, perhaps a little less. There is no predictability and we have to embrace that. There are no guarantees in life and we have to respect and accept that.

We go on. A little older, a little wiser. Because we have to, the alternative is degeneration, which hurts nobody else except ourselves. Life is already too short, we can choose to make every moment count or we can wallow in pits that offer no hope anyway.

Yes, life does change people. But each of us decide, on the kind of change that we want to accept or reject. We can be cynical or we can be hopeful. We choose our destinies, no matter what others say. We create our circumstances, despite what everyone else believe. We can lead or we can follow.

I would like to know that at the end of today, I would have exchanged it for something that will have moved me one little step forward, from where I was yesterday. It’s easy to laugh, it’s a lot harder to cry. It’s easy when things are smooth, it’s tough when things are not. But when adversity knocks, you want to be able to respond to the challenge and rise to the occasion. To know that at the end, you have done your best, been your best.

And that is hope.