NEVER LOSE HOPE FOR HOPE IS ALL WE HAVE…

Watching the carnage of the Boston marathon, pondering what man is capable of in hurting other men, what stood tall and majestic over it all, was the unwavering hope and determination shown by the victims. One woman who lost her foot in the blast wanted to dance again. No, wanted would be the wrong word – she was determined to dance again. It was not the progress made in the field of prosthetics but the singular ray of hope they expressed, thereby with one sweeping act, cancelling the devastating effect of the bomb.

Hope is the substance of everything human – hope keeps us going, empowers us on from high and enables us to dream dreams we may not have otherwise. Hope springs eternal as they say in the human heart and will always be the driving force that gets the impossible done. Aristotle said that hope is a waking dream.

“The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveller than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.” Said Marion Zimmer Bradley in the Fall of Atlantis.

Boston victims

It would have been very easy for the Boston victims to sit and wallow in self-pity, in a sea of depression and anger. That is by far, the easiest choice. But they chose otherwise. They chose to continue in hope, in expectation of resuming normalcy. No other act could best sum up the mood no bomber can take away from a nation committed to bounce back.

Steve Jobs

Bill Gates

Hope is responsible for every good act we see – we experience and enjoy. If we lose hope, we lose everything. It is easy to lose hope but that is the very thing we must fight – the desire to give up hope all too soon. Hope keeps nations going and fuels the fire that keeps every human being alive spiritually. As Martin Luther King Jr said, “We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope”.

Hope takes a back seat when dreams die and loved ones face failure. But hope must be revived and restored for then and then alone can we get back on the road to success. Every venture that started, every big project envisioned and put into action, was once a ray of hope that someone had and decided to act upon.

Hope of doing things better drove people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to dream the impossible dream. Hope has galvanized great men and women to dream big and achieve even bigger dreams.

We cannot give up or throw in the towel when things go bad – hope is always there, always to be trusted upon, able to offer us a glimpse of what we are capable of, what we can truly achieve if and when we put ourselves to the test. Hope is always around the corner – the darkest hour is always before dawn.

Human spirit

Hope must be dreamt when all hope seems lost. Hope must be rekindled when it seems impossible to take another step. Hope waits at the next post, when the going seems so rough that all you want to do is give up.

Boston bomb explosion. Pic. courtesy: TimesLIVE

Hope is always one breath away, one tear drop away, one more lap away. It is what sums up every human dream and keeps every dream intact. It is in all our tomorrows and keeps us going. Let us hope for our nation, our families, our children – without hope, we would all become dull and dreary. Without hope, there is no point in living life. A full life is lived when hope becomes the corner stone of everything.

Whatever there may be in our days, hope is what we must believe in and hope is what keeps us glued to life. It forms the very essence of every aspect – hope in a better tomorrow, in a safer society, a better cure, a bigger dream. As in the case of Boston survivors, let us dream big and hope for a tall order.

Hope in smaller things may fade away but when hope is chained to bigger and better visions, it becomes a journey worth the while. No bomb can steal our joy when we know what hope is all about. No act of terror can succeed where there is so much of hope it is encoded in the DNA of the people. Those who have experienced failure but have chosen to cling on to hope have learnt some of life’s best lessons. Hope can bring on a dimension unseen before in keeping the human spirit empowered to achieve greater results.

“When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.”

Pittacus Lore – I am Number Four