h o p e

Hope is something we sometimes feel in a BIG way, like a flashing neon light, very warm and welcoming, inviting us to something better. Other times, it is like a tiny spark, barely visible.....

I have been thinking about hope recently, probably for a couple reasons. Of course, in my work, I see people daily who seem sometimes bereft of hope. I always have to remember that by the time people end up in my office, they have already been struggling for months and years and sometimes decades. They have tried everything they could think of, and have often been to doctors and therapists in the past. No wonder they are frustrated and feeling hopeless. So, some days, at work, it feels as if I am immersed in hopelessness.....

I have been thinking about hope also because it is spring, my favorite season! And, I have been planting seeds! I do this each spring and I am like a little kid and still find it so fascinating. I go to the store and purchase the seeds. Then I go home and plant the seeds in soil in pots and set the pots on my deck and water them and WAIT AND SEE......I check them every day to see WHAT IS HAPPENING....I read the label for the "expected growth date" and am so excited when they start to sprout in 3 days verses the 7-10 days that it says on the seed pack. And I keep checking and checking every day because the little seeds ACTUALLY GROW and KEEP GROWING and become these beautiful, delicate and unique flowers!

I was watching tv Sunday morning, or really I was flicking through stations, and caught part of Joel Osteen. I like Joel a lot and I think that in many ways, his message is all about hope. Maybe I'm taking his message on Sunday out of context because I did happen onto it in the final 5 minutes but here's what I took from it - It matters what we do with hope. Sometimes we have just a small h o p e, but don't let it die because it is so small, we can also nurture it and see what happens.

This morning as I checked my pots on the deck and the growing sprouts, I was amazed to realize that the hardiest sprouts are the ones which were tiny, tiny, seeds. They looked like tiny black specks of dust and when I placed them in the soil, a part of me wondered "will these really become beautiful flowers?". And, the bigger seeds, the ones that were the size of small peas, have barely sprouted!

So, now I'm thinking - hope is hope. It doesn't matter if it is a huge flashing neon sign HOPE, or a tiny spark, barely visible
h o p e. It's what we do with it that matters.

I know I have followers and invite comments. Tell me about your experiences with hope!