“Everyone lives for something better to come.” (Anonymous)
Those of us who blog, often feel as if there are no words to adequately represent our thoughts. We become stuck – the proverbial writer’s block. While it may be overly dramatic to suggest that at that moment we have hopelessly lost our way, the hope of a finished piece of writing seems quite distant. Hope for a writer is realized when the editor says,”good job.” We call on the Muses, we go to books filled with writers’ prompts, we meditate, we read the work of others, all in hope of finding the synaptic connections that will open up our creative process once again.
That’s where I have been for about a month or so. That and the flu, but that’s the subject for another post. In the most unlikely of moments when all thought of writing had been exorcised, I found words to write. As I was sitting at the stop light, a truck pulled up next to me. Waiting for the light to turn green, I glanced at the panel van idling beside me. On the side of the truck, along with the name and website address of the organization that owned the truck, was this simple message – “upload hope.”
Upload Hope. That phrase was setting off sparks in my brain as I got in line at my favorite coffee store drive thru. Caffeine seemed the elixir for unlocking the secret of the truck’s message – UPLOAD HOPE. As I approached the window, ready to exchange data on my smartphone for coffee, the woman at the window said, “your coffee was paid for by the person in front of you. They said they felt badly for having made you wait so long in line. They also asked me to say thank you for not honking your horn or glaring at them.” I am certain my benefactor’s tone was more magnanimous than the barista was able to project.
The stoplight, the truck and it’s message, the kindness of a stranger conspired to produce a kernel of insight. Too much serendipity for me to ignore. I pulled into a vacant space in the parking lot and began to write. I know I could have continued to let despair, writer’s block and annoyance fill my heart or I could have chosen to be guided by this new bit of inspiration – upload hope. I chose hope. After all, I was writing again even if it was on my smartphone in a strip mall parking lot. I had caffeine, I had inspiration, and I had the recent memory of the kindness of a stranger. My heart was warmed by hope in common decency and civility.
I look for hope every day – short term hope as well as the long term eternal kind of hope. Some of my more religious friends would say I am cultivating “an attitude of gratitude.” I wouldn’t say that just because I don’t like my faith reduced to jingles. But it is true that if I have a choice between uploading anxiety, despair, feeling blue, being consumed with doubt (you get the idea) or uploading hope, hope will win every time. Hope never disappoints me.
I have faith that whatever happens in the world, my hope comes as a promise made to me some two thousand years ago – “peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” A good thought then, a good thought now. Upload this hope into your hearts.
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“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today, I still have a dream.” (Martin Luther King – 1929-1968)
“To know oneself is to foresee oneself; to foresee oneself amounts to playing a part.”
“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” (Voltaire 1694-1778)
There is little hope in life without self-discipline, purpose, and intentionality/effort. The amount of hope we live into is in direct proportion to how committed we become to discipline, purpose, and effort in our lives. In living into these three conditions, we acknowledge some discomfort will come our way. That discomfort lessens as we become actively involved in living a life that is guided by a noble purpose.