Monday, December 22, 2014

The Gift of Hope

Christmas Lamp

There is a picture hanging on the wall of my bedroom that has hung in every bedroom of every house or apartment I've lived in for the past 25 years. The picture is called In Disgrace, and it shows a little girl of about 3 standing in the naughty corner with her loyal puppy sadly at her feet waiting for her to be reprieved. It was given to me by my youngest daughter, now 43, who spent a good deal of her young life in that same position, only her puppies were imaginary friends. Her favorite line to her pretend puppies was," I hope she doesn't forget us here."

Hope is powerful. As long as we have hope, there is no one and nothing that can stop us from believing that there is another way. I have to admit that of all the gifts  I have written about this month, this one was the hardest to do. It is hard to hold on to hope when all of the news is so bad. Every day when we turn on the TV or log on to the computer we are greeted with another tragedy, another horror, another example of man's inhumanity to man. But somewhere in the back of my mind is a saying passed on to me during some crisis in my life that came to me as I sat down at my desk this morning: "As long as the sun comes up tomorrow, there is always hope ... and the sun always comes up tomorrow, so there is always hope." I would add to that a line from that wonderful movie, The Last Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: "It will all work out in the end, and if it hasn't worked out yet, then it's not the end."

The sun will come out tomorrow, and with that gift, we can do anything. Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday filled with love, joy, and the hope for a better world for everyone. It's time to start writing a new story.

And so it is.