Hope Delivers New Life

Text by Ian Webb

HOPE: H: Happiness O: Occurring P: Passionately E: Expressive 

     Belief in hope can all but disappear sometimes. It can even be followed by a sort of amnesia. LIFE: Family, Relationships, Work. They can create a mental poison that chokes away at this once blessed gift. 

     Hope is the feeling that a small toddler feels innately. But adulthood can mix the right cocktail that erases hope. Then...someone or something can trigger it back to life. Just slightly, but enough to grow. Like a snowball rolling downhill. A great hill.             

     Perhaps the ball was started by a sparrow, or even an insignificant icicle. The fall of the icicle or the patter of the bird's feet has started something very special. No one was there in the forest, no human except you. But you thank the heavens you were there to witness it.  

     The recurrence of hope is like our oxygen. And it's as important as our other senses. With those who suffer from a traumatic event, clinical depression or even the blues, HOPE is the realization that makes all the senses heighten and illuminate. 

     The painter sees her palate less muddy and smeared, now her paints are individual and pure, ready to be applied to the canvas again.  The chef now knows the right ingredient to change his entree into a local sensation. The musician has decided to pick out of the wastebasket his latest draft, and to finish his symphony. 

     And the blind man who just lost his sight last year is no longer frustrated by the braille beneath his fingertips. The reason he returned to those annoying bumps was his love of friendship and books. He was a fan of fiction, fact, history and science.  

     His best friend pleaded that he continue learning, so they could write true stories of their childhood together. They had grand adventures together. This man is now fluent in his new world with hope. 

     So, while my story of the blind man is only a tale, these important causes, effects and inspirations of hope are true. For me. Hope is powerful and we all need it.