The Sound Of Hope

A tale of two emails.

The first message is from a beloved friend who shares in confidence news of a tragic personal development. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Not for the first time, I close my eyes in despair as to how cruel life can be to the nicest of people.

Then, after a shocked moment spent coming to grips with the implications of her bad news, the next email in cue leads me to this video, providentially sent by a friend who thought I’d enjoy it.

"Enjoy" it? What an understatement..!

It’s medicine for the grieving soul. Maybe it's the timely circumstances, and coincidences, surrounding it's arrival, but I can’t help but hear within the video the very sound of Hope.

I hear the sound of faith fulfilled, the fruit of love directed outwards as well as inwards, the further reward that may come when we express our gratitude for the many blessings that fill our daily lives.

My faith teaches me that it’s by seeking the good that we may find happiness, and eventual peace. Most of the time this seems a false promise, an impossible burden, for the world is filled with such evil, and from it springs such eternal misery. Is there truly sufficient goodness out there, somewhere, that would make it worthwhile to remain positive in our thinking, optimistic in our attitude? Is there really a reason to believe that, ultimately, it’s rational to live in hope?

I watch the video and hear a reminder, just when I needed it the most, of how the search for good continues to be a habit worth cultivating. Indeed, all the more so: it renews my understanding of how our individual searches for inner peace may strengthen others, looking to us for encouragement in their time of deepest trouble, in their moments of gravest doubt.

And so I hope that through this video you can hear what I hear, a gentle re-affirmation of hope; that despite a life filled with despair, suffering, and injustice, alongside it can be found joy, wonder, and mercy. Watching the video, we pause to ask: is it really so impossible to find good in the world..?

If One Can Do It...

This won't be news for many, but it will be news for some, it was new to me and for someone out there it will be new to you.
So this is for you:




That was the beginning. Here's the happy ending.

Sometimes, if we keep looking, we can find dreams that do come true.


"If"

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

[hat tip to Shooting Star for the inspiring video]