Saturday, October 10, 2009

Hope

Once you choose hope, anything's possible.It's a very well qoute by Christopher Reeve.

"Hope" is necessary for us to be able to visualize a clear, positive future for ourselves. Not to be able to do this leaves our personal future in doubt. It can lead to (or result from) discouragement, depression, doubt, etc.

Today millions of people believe that there is nothing worth living for---that there is no hope of anything good or even okay happening ever again. Not everyone takes that route though...when a person loses hope in everything, life ceases to be for them, so much that the life will seem to drain from them. In plainest phrasing, this person would seem like a zombie....laughing and smiling or even crying would be rare and completely fake when they do happen. This person would isolate themselves from their friends, family, colleagues, teachers,  and other people they know. They wouldn't share their thoughts with anyone. They would do the bare minimum to survive. Life would hold no meaning....even when sleeping, there would be no solace, for a person without hope cannot dream.

The point is not its cause, but what we're going to do about it.

If hope is the basis on which we plan our future, set goals, and make plans to achieve something, then we must be able to manage and control our thoughts.

Thoughts are the way our mind does a number of wonderful, important things: solves our problems; gives meaning to things that happens to us; defines (using words and images) the future we want to have...just to name three.

Hope on the other hand, is like drugs. It gives you a temporary high, but then, reality strikes and you have to face the consequences. One of my dear friends once said, that hope is a fools weapon. There are times when I almost agree. Look at this world! Everyday, things seem to be getting worse. The crimes against innocent, the crimes on the streets and on the internet. You can’t trust anyone, you can’t depend on anyone. People you know, show sides you would rather not see. All this not only weakens Gods and goods case, but also that of hope. Forgive me for acting the devils advocate, but happiness, trust, virtue, good and God, all disappear when you need them most. Pain and hatred at least stay. You can never predict or claim, that if you are fair to people, they shall be fair with you. That if you do good, you will get good in return. But I can bet that if you do something bad, you shall receive bad. if you kick someone, you can trust them to retaliate. But if you hug someone, you can’t trust them to reciprocate.

Robert Louis Stevenson said 'It is better to travel hopefully than arrive', indicating how hope can be a pleasant in itself. In particular, hope is often tinged with the fear both that you will not get what you want, and also that even when you achieve your goal, it will not be as perfect as your fantasized eventualities.

As a result, many people are happy just to hope. All you need to do is offer them this, as all casinos do to their hapless customers. Many such punters will merrily gamble away until their money is all gone, then return time and again just to experience that temporary thrill of hope
All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like. Let's live with hope.

Kalidasa had also said about hope:

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action, The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Hope is the reason why our hope might indeed come to pass. We say, "A good tailwind is our only hope of arriving on time." In other words, the tailwind is the reason we may in fact achieve the future good that we desire. It's our only hope.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.