Hope is one of the most mysterious and wondrous emotions that people can have.
It keeps people smiling and joyful even when some of the most tragic and terrible things have happened in their lives. But what is it?
Hope is about thinking optimistically about the future. It's about knowing that things will get better than they are. Hope is a tool that people use to get through the toughest times in their lives, because whether we like it or not, we all encounter times like these....
What about faith? Where does that fit in to everything? I'm not talking about faith in a religious context, even though faith is what religion is based on. I'm talking about faith in relationship with hope. Faith is needed for hope. Faith is about placing 100% trust in something, even though you may have little to no evidence/proof that, that thing exists. In context with hope, faith is what makes hope stable...believable. We use faith to believe that life will get better, even if there's no evidence to prove that it will. Because somewhere deep-down, we know that things are gonna turn out allright.
Hope/Faith is needed in us to stay optimistic about things. For some reason, in these modern times, it's a lot easier for us to get caught being worried over bad things that might happen to us. In fact a lot of us believe that things never will get better for them, hence such high suicide rates. Why is this? Why is it that we can become so concerned with bad things, but it's so tough for us to focus on the good/happy times that lay ahead? They're just two sides to something, why do we always have to focus on the negative? I'm not criticizing anyone, this happens to me all the time, I'm struggling myself to always keep things in the positive.
The biggest problem is when hope is applied to something long-term. It's easy to have hope for something that's coming up soon... hope that you'll have a fun weekend, hope that you and your best friend can hang out soon, hope that your interview goes well.... The trouble is when you start asking long-term questions... Questions that require more faith, questions that are less certain than the short-term ones... Questions like what am I going to do for a living?, will I meet mr./ms. right?, am I going to do anything meaningful with my life?, am I going to die alone?, Am I going to raise successful children?....
These are the questions that plague many people...the ones that make us think...the ones that some people completely lose faith in and decide life's not worth it.... They're the ones that require unwavering, long-term faith.
In addition to that, I think it also requires the resistance to think about these questions too often. If you continue to ask these questions too often, you begin shaking the foundation of faith. At first, you may think it's a good thing to keep asking these questions....but I'll tell you why I would advise against it.
The future is unpredictable - Life is a chaotic, unpredictable thing. People will die unexpectedly, people will get pregnant & eventually give birth unexpectedly...I'm just trying to get across that unpredictable things happen all the time. And honestly, we can never predict the course of our lives. Think about it... Think back 10 years....did you think you'd be where you are now? Did you think you'd have the same relationships with certain people? Did you think you'd have the same goals and ambitions as you do now? Did you think your family and friends would be in the same situations they are now?... The answer for most of us, is no.
The fact is, we cannot predict how our lives will turn out. We could die in 50 years, or we could die tomorrow. The moral of the story is to focus on the now.
To state an obvious truth, the only person we can control is ourselves. To extend this truth, the only time we can control ourselves is now. We cannot control our past-selves and we cannot control our future-selves. If we get too caught up in the past...or in the future, we're making the most common and fatal life mistake possible. Not only that, but a lot of people get caught in this hopeless mindset of always worrying about the future, or about how their past will affect them, and they don't focus on the single moment in time which they have control over....Now.
Why am I writing this? Because like everyone else, I have these problems. I often get caught into the worries of past-nav....and how it will affect future-nav...and what will future-nav be like? Should I be looking forward to future-nav? or should I be fearing it?... Sometimes my hope begins fading, along with my faith.... At other times, they both shine bright.
I'm writing this to make sense of the things in my life.... and to make sense of how to make sense of the things in my life. Writing, I'm realizing more and more lately, helps me organize my thoughts. It helps me think about things, and realize what's important. I'm writing this so I can remind myself to think of the NOW, and why I should be doing it... Hopefully anyone reading this can also think about what I said, and maybe apply it to their lives. Regardless, this is the end of the post, hope you found it at least a little interesting.
FINAL THOUGHT
One thing that is very important, to focus on in the now. Is the people close to you. I've heard from numerous people, in the end, all that matters are the people in your life. Make sure you don't get too distant from the people that know you. A close friend is worth more than a hundred acquaintances. If you don't make the effort to maintain the relationships you have with those close to you, you're losing something invaluable...
FINAL FINAL NOTE
Anthony let me know of a quote by buddha which sums up a lot of the stuff I just said pretty well:
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."
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