What separates those who are happy from those who are not? More than nearly anything else, holding a genuine feeling of hope in one’s body and mind makes the difference. You can be poor or suffering with disease or loss, but if you have hope you have the tools necessary to survive and prosper.
Let’s break down the key statement (in bold) above to really understand it. The verb “holding” was very consciously chosen. We cannot lock down hope or buy hope or own hope, we can simply hold it, like a water balloon. It is fragile and shape changing. We need to tend to it, not take it for granted. It is not our hope, it is just hope. And it doesn’t cease to exist just because we are no longer able to hold it, it is still out there somewhere, maybe someone else is now holding it. We don’t have to concern ourselves with how much hope there is there, we are just holding it or not, and we know the difference. Next, “genuine” is meant to connote sincere, real, and honest. Blindly wishing is not hope. Buying a lottery ticket is delusion or fantasy or desperation, it is not hope. Genuine is that automatic, what comes to mind first when a word is mentioned reflex. “Feeling” is not a tangible thing that can be handed from one person to another, it is like love or fear, it is something that we experience through the emotional change inside us because of it. “Body and mind” is vital….not just mind. We hold many thoughts and experiences in the structure of our being, things like hope, fear, our first kiss, our first mid-term failure, and trauma. It is all really in there, in our livers and left big toes. Our spleens can hold hope or fear or longing or any or all of these.
Hope can make up for many short comings or limitations. The hopeful person will succeed, eventually. The target of the hope needs to obviously be something feasible. Hoping to become a hippopotamus with all your fiber is likely to never result in species transformation. But, you could still be successful. The path might not be linear or the literal goal attained, but that hope will fortify you for the journey ahead to a better place, a more hippopotamus-like place. Maybe you’ll end up working with animals or become a happy artist specializing in big-game linoleum-cut prints. Maybe you will become a happy corporate lawyer or a mechanical engineer….but the unique path that you took to get there was helped by countless hippopotami small and large (really large and larger).
Addiction, self-loathing, childhood abuse, auto-immune disease, everything can be made better with hope. We should not discount the potential of the person who has tried rehab, and failed, numerous times, if they still have hope. Similarly, we should have special patience for those who are finally sober, but lacking hope for the future. Hope can re-wire our brains. Hope can turn on endorphin release. Hope can conquer cancer. Hope can rebuild a house after a fire. Hope can fill in the gaps in any struggle or cause.
Hope is alive. It requires attention and cultivation. We must nurture our hope if we want to nurture ourselves or those we care about. We exercise our bodies. We change the oil on our cars. We need to give attention to the needs of the hope inside us. Hope can spread like wild fire. It can also disappear en masse…..but there are always a few little pockets of hope out there in the offing that can be regrown into its former ubiquity. Having hope comes naturally to some, but not all. If you are in the former camp, consider yourself lucky, but also realize the responsibility that you have to share it. The more you give it away, the more you have! For those of us that are not naturally bathed in hope, we too have a responsibility. We must do all that we can to cultivate hope in our bodies and souls. We must avoid distractions, false prophets, temptations, and anything that does not feed our hope. The sun always sets, and winter always comes. But the sun also rises and warm spring breezes always carry wildflower seeds! If we have hope, we have all that we need.
