The Journey of Hope

"A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love"...(Stendhal). One of my clients noticed on my profile that one of my favorite movies is "The Notebook," so I received a text informing me that it was on this weekend. I am a hopeless romantic I guess. I have always loved movies based on true love. One of the first movies I remember watching about love was a Christopher Reeves movie called "Somewhere in Time." The stories are all similar in that a true heart connection exists between souls and the test is whether they follow their hearts or let their fears, society or numerous other pressures get in the way. The other similarity is that hope is always involved. You cannot have love without a spark of hope guiding the way. As with any love in life, whether it be toward another person, a cherished dream, a career or a personal goal, hope lights the horizon and makes the impossible seem possible. In "The Notebook," the main character Noah almost gives up hope but never stops loving her and with that, his hope never fades completely. A client recently told me a story of a child who had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Even with the worse prognosis, the family, friends and community, joined together and gave hope to this child. The child knew that he was going to die, but hope and ultimately love united them all. Hope is a like a prayer, igniting one's truest desires and keeping them alive. What would we have if there was never hope.....despair? "To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing"....(author unknown). Hope is always worth the risk, because nothing risked is nothing gained, as the saying goes. People often sit back and take the easy way out, hoping for nothing and risking nothing. The price they pay? Feeling their heart connection. People numb themselves and build barricades of defenses to hide behind. We all know people like that and may all be guilty of it at some time in our lives. Again, the price paid is pain anyway. You either risk pain or feel pain through detachment. Pain can never be avoided but hope offers opportunity and a chance for getting what you want. The journey of hope starts with a reconnection to your heart. The heart knows the way and the mind needs to step aside. The mind is often the barrier, negotiating and warning the heart that it might get hurt. The rationalization is the defense preventing the heart from leading the way. People often close up their hearts after they've been hurt. The heart need to heal, but closing it off and never taking another risk in loving is futile and the only one that ultimately hurts is you. So take a risk, trust your heart and allow hope to blossom. "The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for"...(Allan K. Chalmers).