HOPE HAS A STRANGE WAY OF SHOWING UP…
Sometimes it drifts in gently, like sunlight through a window—soft, warming, almost easy to miss. But other times, it crashes in, loud and relentless, refusing to let you give up even when you’re exhausted… even when you don’t want to keep going anymore.
I’ve felt both… and they come and go for me.
I’ve felt hope lift me when I was barely holding on, and I’ve felt the weight of it when I just wanted peace from the waiting, the not knowing, the endless what ifs. That’s the paradox of hope… it’s beautiful, but it can also break your heart. It gives you something to cling to… but in doing so, it won’t let you rest.
What a crushing, and life-giving contagion, it can be.
Crushing, because it keeps you tethered to something that hasn’t happened yet. It asks you to believe in a future you can’t see. It makes you vulnerable… open to disappointment, to loss, to longing that never seems to end.
But life-giving… because it keeps you alive. It keeps your heart beating through the pain. It’s the reason you try again, get back up, reach out, speak up. It’s the quiet strength that moves you forward, even when every part of you wants to sit down and give in. And I am thankful, even when I am not.
And the wild thing? Hope spreads.
It’s in a friend who refuses to give up on you. In a stranger’s smile. In a story that reminds you you’re not alone. Hope moves from one person to another without permission… an invisible hand that reminds us there’s still light, still meaning, still something worth holding onto.I experienced this personally just this week and it prompted me to take some action… not with the expectation of success, but just “for me.”
So if you’re in that space, somewhere between giving up and holding on, I just want you to know: you’re not crazy for hoping. You’re not weak for still believing. You’re human. And you’re brave.
Hope might break your heart sometimes, but more often, it rebuilds it, it internalizes what “only you own” and “no one can take away.” Piece by piece. Breath by breath. LET IT.