Today I want to talk about hope and why it matters. Hope is kind of one of those things that people don't always understand very well. Although oddly enough we all need it to live a healthy and a happy life. After all, hope is what helps us to see a situation and then shows us a way out of it.
So, what is hope exactly? Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope sees a potential in a situation. But it actually does more than that. Hope isn't some warm, fluffy bit of happiness. It's not even a Pollyanna dose of enthusiasm. Though it might contain both of those emotions. Hope instead is a goal. That includes the desire to get there and also the feeling that you can.
And the thing to realize about hope is that it's necessary to live. Without it not only will we stagnate where we're at in life, but we also lose our will to live entirely. Hope matters. And here's why it matters. Hope gets caught up in the interconnectedness of things. We need hope to realize our dreams. But as a group, as a community, we also need hope to survive. Hope shows us what we live for. But it also shows us what we fight for.
There's some other areas of hope, too. Hope makes us creative. Without hope, we wouldn't go hunting for out of the box solutions to our problems. Nor would we waste time trying to find a new way to do things. Hope also puts us to work. Without hope, there's no point in even trying to get a project done. Hope tells us to get to work, and it pushes us to keep going even when we get tired.
Hope also pushes us past any failure. With hope, we can see our setbacks as opportunities to learn, as opportunities to grow. It also ignites our problem solving abilities. So we understand the better way to do things through experimentation and through persistence.
Hope also makes us look towards the future. More than that, it helps us to let go of the past so that we can welcome our bright future with open arms. Hope sees us going somewhere and then shows us the way to get there.
And you know what the best part is about hope? It's contagious. If you go out into the world, full of hope and enthusiasm - you can be sure to find that reflected back at you by those people around you. By those who have learned how to hope because you first showed them the way.
I hope that you can start this day filled with encouragement and hope. Not only for your day - but for your future.