We Never Walk Alone

It’s been some of those weeks when, while encouraging people to hope, I’ve been simultaneously trying to convince myself.

You know what I’m saying?

When my Mama Claire gives the ‘we cannot give up’ talk, without fail she will say ‘we live in hope.’

And we do. At least, I try my best. We hope for all sorts of things and well imagined futures. Hmmph.

The Oxford dictionary defines hope as ‘A feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.’

Hoping gives many of us reason to carry on, and renewed zeal to fulfil today’s duties so that tomorrow things will fall into place. Like building a house with our bare hands, brick by brick. We lay the blocks every day in the sun, rain, snow…when we’re tired, sick, wishing we could be somewhere else, we are laying down the bricks, all in the hope that tomorrow we might have a finished house that we can turn into a home.

But… in the act of hoping, our minds can get clouded by many obstacles. For one, conditions like depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder can make it difficult to stay faithful to the process of hoping.

The danger

Everyone loses hope sometimes. But people affected by the aforementioned conditions may be more vulnerable to giving up when they’ve lost hope. That’s the danger.

How do you find that smidgeon of hope when you’re weary and fogged up by doubt and despair? When you’re in that danger zone there is no logic.

I’m not entirely sure of the answer, but hear –

It is a lonely road but we are not alone. This week I was reminded of this. I met support group friends who were in similar places. And I saw and experienced the presence of so many good Samaritans too.

Some people won’t listen, true. And with the growing popularity of meditation and positive thinking techniques and all that, a lot of people feel pressured to fit right in, and not talk about anything despairing. Who knows if that’s a reason why so many people commit suicide? They don’t even feel it’s ok to vent.

But hey, I’m trying to accept that even if people we know won’t listen we should let that go, painful as it is. There are people walking the same road with us, needing a friend to talk to or listen or sometimes just wanting to know they’re not alone.

For me, sometimes that’s enough to give me just the amount of hope I need. That is, knowing I’m not alone.

More on this soon.

Gentle Hugs:)