This is from me to you.
This is the truth.
How many time have my wishes and my dreams and my prayers for you hidden beneath my breath?
How many times have I looked at you, heart in my throat, hands in my pockets, a smile on my face, just wanting to say…
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder..
What is hope?
What is hope? To want? To desire? To expect that what’s envisioned may indeed happen?
YES to all of the above.
Is hope that gut feeling that it’s worth holding out and hanging on for just a little longer?
ABSOLUTELY.
Is hope the core of the human condition?
CERTAINLY.
Can you have hope without faith and humility and wonder?
THAT’S TOUGH.
Just the thought that there’s something bigger, something truer, something totally surprising out there waiting for us is… PRICELESS.
What would you be without hope growing deep in your bones, thriving in every inch of you?
NOTHING.
What does it take to hope?
EVERYTHING.
Hope takes never ceasing to be amazed…
Wearing your soul on your sleeve…
Holding your breath, waiting to hear “I love you, too…”
Believing that tomorrow could be better than today…
that you’ll get a second chance…
that you’ll make a difference…
that you matter.
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger..
Hunger is the wanting:
to see more
to feel more
to touch more
to crave, desire, search out, find, hold more.
And sometimes hunger hurts more.
But go on, go west, young man, young woman.
Plow the land, plant the seeds, grow the food for the whole wide world.
May you never take one single breath for granted..
So breathe out and breathe in.. AND SOAK IT ALL UP
God forbid love ever leave you empty-handed..
But if it does, may it leave you patient and stronger, willing and wiser, tender and tougher.
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean..
If you’re ever lying on a beach with 80 billion grains of sand beneath you, 700 thousand ocean waves before you, 60 million stars stretched out above you, and you’re still not at all impressed, I want you to think about this:
The light you see reflecting from the stars if over one million years old.
WOW.
But then, just before you start to feel like a mere blip in the gigantic scheme of things, please remember this:
Yes, you are small, but you’re also irreplaceable
and invaluable
and miraculous
THOSE STARS DON’T HAVE ANYTHING ON YOU.
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens..
DOORS
Holes in walls that offer us a way out or a way in. Just putting your hand on the knob and seeing if it turns can make you weak in the knees.
What if it’s locked?
What if it’s unlocked?
What if no one answers?
What if someone does?
What if the hinges creak and the heavy wood swings open and you’re suddenly standing at the threshold of a brand new tomorrow?
What if your horizon is nothing but blue clear skies? What if it’s a raging storm?
What if?
What if?
What if?
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance..
A PROMISE IS ALL ABOUT FAITH.
A PROMISE IS ONLY AS STRONG as your own faith in your own self, in your own God. So when you swear, in light of your strengths and in spite of your weaknesses, to struggle and follow through, you are doing a beautiful thing.
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.. I HOPE YOU DANCE..
Let the music move you, let the moment take your hand, let it lead you out into the middle of the dance floor and embrace you. Dive off the high board, ride with the top down, thrive like a wildflower, and SING. (Who cares what you sound like?) with a voice.. ALL your own.
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance..
Life Chapter 23 “Mountains and Oceans seems like there’s always another of one or the other..”
It’s crossing your fingers when the map doesn’t make sense, when the compass doesn’t know truly North from truly lost; and it’s up to you-you and your gut and your mettle, and your level of resilience, and your wealth of wisdom-to persevere. To get to the other side.
To hope.
Never settle for the path of least resistance..
That’s too easy. What follows is too interesting.
Living might mean taking chances, but they’re worth taking..
Ask Eve.
Evolve.
Take a chance, take a ticket, take a fast train to the coast.
NOT GUTS, NOT GLORY.
Chance (n.): a coin with two sides that one tosses into the air as many times as one wants. The odds remain the same.
It’s risky breathing, let alone needing, trusting, reaching out. Life is the leap of faith, the bold declaration of HOPE.
Loving might be a mistake, but it’s worth making..
Love, love, love.
You have to love.
And if you don’t get love right, you have to move on and FORGIVE. And then you have to remember that you’ve forgiven, or else you can’t move on, and if you don't move on, you’ll surely end up…
BITTER.
Don’t let some hell-bent heart leave you bitter..
(And don’t say I didn’t warn you.)
There are too many people too angry at a world that isn’t in the least bit angry at them.
When you come close to selling out, RECONSIDER..
YOU
(A Haiku)
One worth so much
To me, to us, to life as such.
A bowl of cherries.
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance..
Heaven (n.): (1) A place somehow high above the clouds, yet deep inside your soul; (2) a place of complete peace, of total and utter happiness; (3) a place that is greater than the sum of everything you will ever be or could ever imagine to be; (4) a place we all want to get to, but just not yet.
No, not yet.
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance..
(As you now well know.)
DANCE..
I hope you dance because:
Time.
Time is a wheel.
Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along. Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder..
Where those years have gone..
Ah, youth. New skin, wide smiles, clear eyes…the future so bright. If only we could bottle it, sip it now and again, and stay forever twenty-one, forever ten, forever five.
I liked being five.
But I’d also like to think that time and age are like cousins-they’re relative.
Who said you have to go by actual miles? If you didn’t know how old you were, how old would you be? (Me, I’m sticking with five.)
I’ll even argue that you can bottle youth. What you store it in is all up to you. -I suggest your heart<3. If you can figure out a way to keep the energy and gumption and fire alive, you’ll always stay young. And where there’s youth, there’s hope.. where there’s hope, there’s wonder.. where there’s wonder, there’s faith.. where there’s faith, there’s chance.. where there’s chance, there’s love.. where there’s love, there’s music.. and dancing.
So in my heart of hearts..
I hope you dance..
I really hope you dance.
Amen.
Wait..
Promise me one more thing:
If tomorrow you wake up feeling unoriginal or frail-hearted or faithless or tired of this world.. please.. CALL ME.