“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.” ~Robert H. Schuller
It’s so easy to let our past losses shape our future, but we do so much better to learn from the losses and continue to let our hopes guide our way forward. Which do you allow to shape your future?
“The darkest moments of one’s life may carry the seeds of the brightest tomorrow.” ~Ella Fitzgerald
No matter how dark things look at this moment, there is not only hope for a brighter tomorrow, but it’s even possible that these dark times themselves hold that which will grow into that better future. Be sure to watch for those seeds and nourish them well!
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” ~Desmond Tutu
When we’re stuck in the darkness of pain or fear, hope can be hard to see. But it’s always there if we search hard enough, just as even the smallest hints of light can be found in the darkness.
Where are you finding hope in your life?
“Hope doesn’t mean counting on one’s dreams coming true. Hope means being willing to entertain dreams in the first place—but without being so in love with them as to give up the present beauty in hopes of something better.” ~Molly Wolf, in A Place Like Any Other
I so often get caught up in my hopes and dreams for the future that I discount the beauty of the present moment right in front of me. I spent my whole life dreaming of a future that I believe will somehow be better and, in the process, miss out on life altogether as it flows by completely unnoticed.
Learning to hold on to the present beauty and live every moment as fully as possible while still entertaining dreams of what is possible is much truer to what hope really is.
How well are you walking this balance between entertaining dreams and staying present?
“The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune’s spite; revive from ashes and rise.” ~Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The image of hope as a phoenix fits well with my experience of it. Hope manages to endure no matter how harsh the conditions and rises anew from the ashes of disappointment time and time again.