This phrase has been bouncing around in me lately. It’s the idea that hope means believing things will change. And while change is often gradual and a process, it seems to also come in moments. My life has changed in moments. And the best moments have mostly been surprises – things i didn’t plan, could not have predicted or built on my own. As someone who struggles with depression, it feels important to remember the good, to fight to focus there. Perhaps having hope means hoping to be surprised. And our hope for other people is that they will stay alive to be surprised. By a love. By a friendship. By a place. By an opportunity. By so many different things.
i was on the couch a few nights ago, feeling sorry for myself, at the end of the worst day in a while. And then an email came in, one i was not expecting. It completely changed my day and made me smile. i think it’s important to remember those things happen in this life, those bright moments.
And so we hope to be surprised.
Our newest design comes from Melody Hansen, a very gifted artist from Toronto.
MARISA
Hope is fundamental to all of us …… too often, in those dark moments it is easier to draw inward than to reach out…… It is within each one of us to extend a hand and share that bright, healing light of hope with one another…… it glimmers within all of us, but too often it can become lost in the tangle of sadness and despondency. We TRUELY are one another’s keeper….. we can not exist with out extending our hands out to each other….. because so many times that is where the healing lay.
b.e. noll
Glad you were surprised by hope. I hope it continues to surprise you.
surprised by hope
[hoping to be surprised]
sometimes
we are just hangin’ on
by the thinnest
frailest
of threads
it looks
for all the world
like this
is all there is
hope
looks like a joke
a fuzzy word
cloudy
in the distance
“please
come back
won’t you?”
we
I
need you
you know
then I turn my back
thinking it’s over
roll credits
and
it happens
hope
sneaks up on me
taps me on the shoulder
and whispers in my ear
“don’t give up
please
not
just
yet.
there is so much for you here
don’t throw it away
I know it’s dark
don’t leave
before
the first rays
of a new dawn
arrive
and
all of a sudden
a little thing
from someone else
brings hope
into focus
we still have hope
the stars
have not
burned out
just yet
and think
some
small thing you do
could be someone else’s
spark
of hope
please
stay long enough
to create it
mae527
Thanks for sharing this poem, it’s really inspiring!
McBride
Thank you for sharing this. As the step-mom of a conduct-disordered pre-teen with Bi-Polar tendencies, there are days where I could walk away, give up hope, and live my own quiet life. This poem speaks what I want to say to all of the people that ask me “Why do you stay, why do you deal with someone else’s kid”. It is that spark of hope that someday he will have a good day, that there will be a light in his eyes. Thank you for putting my struggle and his father’s struggle into words.
Addison
I don’t ever think having the worst day ever is a valid phrase. The fact you feel is a bad day makes bad. I guess it doesn’t mean much coming from a teenager but I have depression which isn’t 100% gone yet. But the fact that the email- a single positive thing made it worth while is how everyone should think. Thank you for sharing it means more than anyone would think
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