Hope: A Sense of Destination

I realized today I had a little theme going in my garden with signs that included "hope".  I don't think it was an accident. I have thought much the last few days about that word hope and what it means. My husband and I also had a long conversation about it.  He gave me his perspective from a biblical point of view. He feels  like hope is not wishing,but it is knowing and believing in something. There have been many times I didn't have the strength or wisdom to hope. I was back to wishing and hoping like they were the same thing.

I now believe hope gives us a reason to get up in the morning. It gives us something to look forward do. It isn't "Gee I hope it get it." It is a sense of knowing what to work toward. Goodness, it took me years to figure that out.

I love what Norman Cousins had to say about hope:  “The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.”

I think when I sang "High Hopes" at camp in the summer I did believe that little old ant could move that rubber tree plant. It wasn't about wishing, but about a sense of destination, plus that energy to get started. I now see why that song always inspired me. 

I will remember now the part in the quote from Cousins about energy. Often we are hopeful to start a project, finish a project, weed the garden, organize a room, or fill in the blank with whatever is on that list of things to do. Often  the energy is just not there  to get started. I am going to hang on to that idea of " a sense of destination and the energy to get started." That gives me hope.

I hoped for gardens that would provide beauty around me. At first I thought is was wishing, but now I see that it really is a destination. I am still moving toward that destination. I think this is the new sign I need in my garden. Hope can bloom.