HOPE WHERE ART THOU? by Lourdes Santiago

Bob Hope taught me that laughter is the best medicine and lends itself to a long life. He himself lived to be a hundred. 

Like laughter, Hope creates a belief that there can always be a positive outcome. Think of the world as a high mountain, one so high that we can not see over it. If I can reach its top I will find the answers I seek. All of life’s mysteries are there. I can wish I could climb it.  I can place myself inside a dream where I am conquering it. I can hope to reach its highest peak. Which would be the greater action? 

If You wish you take the chance that the universe will answer you. That the stars will align in the order that grants you your heart’s desire. You surrender to the cosmos. To dream is just another wish without an action. Both dreams and wishes are unique to me and can only create change within myself. To hope gathers the expectations of not only myself but those connected to me through religion, family, community, country, humankind. 

I see the world as my classroom where I can learn how to live a hopeful life. It starts with family, our struggles made right by love’s tender light. We believe in God and have faith that all will be right. But still I hope and expect that relief is in sight. I depend on others to think as I do, take action along with me, and make changes gradually.

Take our country for example. We follow its history with pride. There is a rollercoaster of victories that sweetens the ride. Sometimes we’re up and hold out flags high. Honor and service our battle cry. Then there are the losses of soldiers, leaders, events that lead to mistrust. Fear that our country goes bust. Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. The mountain can become a hill through the living water we call hope. We can take action to create a path towards the answers and still hold on to what we can depend upon….. hope. It is the light at the end of the tunnel; The expectations that keep us holding on to “truth, justice, and the American way.”  Like it was, not as it is. We positively expect and have confidence in a future where what we hope will be, becomes reality. Being active not reactive is the key to a positive hopeful life. Hope is the ability to pick ourselves up and begin again. To know that the steps we take, like a baby’s first steps, can be unsteady but with determination and confidence in what we hold true and dear we can forge on, realize that life is what you make of it and hope is the active ingredient that fosters a positive outcome.

Don’t just hold on to hope, embrace it. Make small changes that will lead towards a powerful impact on your life, your country, and the world. Pick yourself up after any setbacks and move forward. If I did not live with hope, I probably would be like the living dead just existing. I would not have experienced love. I would not have survived loss. I would not have recovered from disappointments and regrets, I would think of my life as worthless rather than a valuable and precious soul. Hope, like an elegant handmade quilt,  is the fabric that holds our life collectively, in concert, inspired by the universal notion that together we can find the answers to a better world  and that is something that makes living worthwhile. Hope, the Universal donor; the Universal recipient.