Considering that this blog is about hope, I have spent very little time actually talking about it. I have pretty much just assumed that my photographs emote my understanding of hope.

I like to consider myself an optimist. My wife will argue with me. She says that I am far more pessimistic than what I would like others, including myself, to think. Like many things that I am usually slow to accept, she is probably right.

I find that it is easy to be hopeful when things are going well. The converse is also true. I tend to be very negative when things are not going my way. That makes it very hard for me to discuss hope. It would be very hypocritical of me to think that I am an expert on the subject.

According to Merriam Webster, the long accepted authority on definition, we get, “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true”. I am sorry, but none of that is really working for me right now. I think they are missing something.

Hope really doesn’t occur without faith. Whether that is a spiritual faith or a general believing in that which is unknown, I firmly believe that hope and faith are connected at the hip. I think then that the definition needs to be revised. Hope is really the belief in the possibility that something that we want to happen or be true, can happen.

I suspect that hope is much like attitude, it is a conscious choice. If we just let ourselves drift in the sea of life, we shouldn’t be surprised that the currents take us places we never intended. Every day we need to chart a course, navigate through the ever-changing conditions and be prepared for corrective action. It is my responsibility to embrace hope every day.

For many, including myself, this is the Season of Hope. It is a time when we look forward to light breaking through the darkness. In this year where we are beginning to emerge out of much despair, maybe more than ever, I have reason for hope.