Hope, Not Love, Will Change Your Life
We want to be happy. Our shelves groan under the weight of self-help volumes that never quite deliver on the promise for which we bought them. We tend to the crisis-du-jour, momentarily happy when we emerge on the other side, then immerse ourselves again in the daily tasks demanding our attention through the routines we have crafted into the rhythm of our lives.
Moment by moment we drift through these lives, looking up now and then to set our sights on the horizon, promising ourselves to make time for "a real life" in the future, comforted by the fact it is so far away. Plenty of time to get through this challenge, through this rough spot, through this crazy period that sucks the time from our hands, and our lives right with it.
That it happens so quickly and yet so slowly at the same time is the most maddening part of it all. Because the days so easily ebb and flow from one to the next, little differentiation from yesterday to today, we miss its passing. Until something causes us to wake up and look around. And we realize it didn't pass slowly, it screamed past us in a tornadic fury we never recognized as we moved through our days in its very eye.
NO SILVER BULLET
It is time to take stock. The sooner we do, the luckier we are. No matter what reasons we zigged when we should have zagged, or allowed every gust of wind to blow us further and further off our own true course, we are ready to acknowledge where we find ourselves now: uncertain and unfulfilled. And fully, desperately, committed to do something about it. And while there may be no silver bullet to fix what ails us, it's possible there are silver BB's. Throughout the years of lost dreams, tough jobs and tougher learnings, I've stumbled across seven to illuminate the dream I wish I had figured out, hunted fearlessly, and lived sooner in the pursuit of a life I loved. Maybe you’ve felt the same? It's not too late if you start now. If you're ready to take a step, I'd like to suggest first embracing one of these silver BB’s: Hope.
HOPE
While many ascribe happiness and success to what the popular Beatles’ song proclaimed, I don't believe love is all we need. I also don’t believe it is love that drives our lives, but rather, it is hope. And within hope lies meaning.
If anyone should understand the value we can find and bring to life it would be those who survived hell on earth by living through the Holocaust. One of our greatest human treasures to have lived in this lifetime was Elie Wiesel. Author of over 50 books, one of his most noted is "Night," in which he shares his experience of living through that unimaginable time. Amidst the deadly grind and horrors of daily concentration camp life, Elie recounts the many times fellow prisoners endured endless suffering and hardship sustained by the hope they would survive to see their loved ones again one day. And though nothing changed physically for them to precipitate death, after learning their loved one had died, they, themselves, passed away soon afterward. They still carried love, the deepest, saddest, fiercest love for the one who was gone; but they had lost something much bigger that willed them to live: hope.
If you go looking for hope as the bright flame to eclipse all else in your life, drawing you immediately to it, you may never find it. Hope is often little more than a faintly growing ember you must spark into life by focusing your full attention upon it. It requires cultivation. Nurture it, and it will be the torch in your life that lights your way to a happier, better, more joyous and fulfilling path to follow.
Hope is not a weak wish for something you dream someone will one day hand you. It is a bright line to a belief that something bigger and better is possible, available and attainable. It is an active verb not a passive noun. It is what you cultivate, cherish and protect when the road you decide to pursue becomes rocky and unclear. It is the beacon that will guide you when all other lights have vanished. Find something to hope for, then fan that flame to life and do all you can to ensure it forever continues to burn brightly.
What do you hope for? If you aren’t sure, it must become the focus of your attention. Today. Tomorrow. Every day until you realize you have uncovered the spark that will illuminate your path, one step at a time, today to tomorrow, this week to next.
Hope is real and it is crucial to your ability to move your life in a new direction. Breathe it into life, cultivate it, nurture it, protect it, rely on it as if your life depends on it.
I believe it does.