“Hope is the most exciting thing in life and if you honestly believe that love is out there, it will come. And even if it doesn’t come straight away there is still that chance all through your life that it will.” (Josh Hartnett)
Now, I don’t know for certain this is a direct quote from Josh Hartnett, but if it truly is, I like it even more. (For those of you who don’t visit my blog on a regular basis, you might not be familiar with my, um, appreciation for Josh and his work. Hubba, hubba. I like him a lot.)
Committing oneself to a life filled with hope is a little scary and definitely risky. When I wake up in the morning and think, “Man, I hope I don’t break my pinky toe again today,” I’m out here admitting I have no idea what will happen, good or bad, but I trust that something good will find me, sooner or later. I know most of us want the sooner version. Sometimes though sooner doesn’t equate to better. Sometimes you need to wait a while for those good things to happen – stumble over a few bad obstacles in order to really appreciate when those good moments find you. And they do find us, it’s not the other way around. You can’t catch good or happy with a net.
The sad thing about hope is you can’t really sell it to people who don’t wanna buy. It’s much easier to adopt a hopeless way of thinking as opposed to a hopeful one. Why? Because there’s so much more certainty in the hopeless way of thinking. “Nothing good will happen to me today.” Yeah, you’re 100% correct. If you tell yourself that, then “nothing good” is exactly what will find you. “My heart is too broken. I’ll never love this way again.” Damn skippy if that’s what you’re telling yourself. Many of us think self-talk and the law of attraction are a bunch of self-help, psycho babble, mumbo jumbo. Well they’re not, people.
When you’re hopeless, you’re playing it safe. You’re not risking the possibility of disappointment and hurt when that thing you’ve been hoping for, doesn’t materialize. But, you also don’t get to experience the peace that hope brings. The utter pleasure of feeling the power of the words, “I hope” at the beginning of your sentences. Risk is scary. Never risking anything is way scarier, at least to me. I’d rather spend my whole life hoping I publish my stories, even if I don’t ever get my stories published, than spend my entire life telling myself I won’t or couldn’t. That latter is just too depressing.
When you live a hopeful life, you’re accepting that you have zero control over things to come. Your soul exhales, your brain relaxes, and your blood pressure most certainly goes down. I hope you understand where I’m coming from 🙂