Today in my email inbox, the Daily Quote from Values.com was one about the word hope. It is as follows: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” by Vaclav Havel (born 1936); poet, playwright, 1st president of Czech Republic. This quote struck a chord with me for a few reasons: One is that I hold hope as a high value in my life, I always have even as a young girl, and two, I have hope for almost everything and everyone no matter how dark or lost something or someone is.
This quote had me question how I perceive hope or how hope works in my life. Sometimes I am an idealist and I do want things to turn out well, so much so that I suspect I sometimes underscore or downplay the importance of something or have denial about certain things which I call hope, but really it’s denial. This quote feels more real to me and an authentic expression of what hope is, not the starry-eyed version of it that I sometimes hold onto.
I recently had a conversation with someone regarding hard truths about ones’ self. It is hard to look at our life with an objective observer’s eye and see it for what it is, but sometimes that’s what we must do in order to make changes or corrections so that the outcome is something we want, not something we have to live with. This quote exposes a hard truth for me and that is the realization that I sometimes dress something up as hope when really it’s something I’m not dealing with head-on or clearly and the very thought of that makes me feel hopeful. I am hopeful that by looking at my life with a clear lens, I can make the corrections or changes necessary to get the outcomes I want, as well as to live an authentic and enriching life, which is even more important.
I’m curious- what does hope mean to you? How does it show up in your own life?
Suzanne
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