Today’s Daily Post topic is HOPE. I haven’t written on any of the topics recommended by the Daily Post as of yet, but there’s something about hope that inspires me, that, well … gives me hope. Hope that I’ll find the words to do it justice. Hope that I’ll be able to write something interesting. Hope that it will help me discover something new about myself and the world.

So, what is this magical thing called HOPE? I Googled hope and the first link among the 468,000,000 results was to Wikipedia. According to the free encyclopedia (via The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language):

Hope is the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life.^[1]

Hope is distinct from positive thinking, which refers to a therapeutic or systematic process used in psychology for reversing pessimism. The term false hope refers to a hope based entirely around a fantasy or an extremely unlikely outcome.

1. ^hope. (n.d.). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved March 18, 2008, from Dictionary.com.

That seems like a boring way to describe something so mysterious and magical. I envision hope having wings, like a beautiful butterfly. When you believe in something, your belief, your thought is launched into flight out into the universe upon the wings of hope.

I think hope is contagious, and that one person’s hope can help another when they need it most. It can pop up anywhere, anytime and it is delivered to you at precisely the right moment. The universe can serve up hope in the smile of a stranger, the perseverance of a friend, the bravery of an ordinary hero, the beautiful scent of a freshly bloomed flower, even the simple flickering flame of a candle.

Without hope the world would be incomplete. We all need to have hope, not only for ourselves but for each other. On the wings of hope we can fly higher and reach further, far beyond anything we could have possibly imagined. With hope, anything is possible.