The definition of hope: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

Hope has always been one of my favorite words.  It’s a shiny word, an uplifting word.  In essence, it’s a word full of hope.

I have been playing a lot with the concepts of patience and control in my life the past few months, and with that has come quite a bit of thought centered around hope and whether hope is a good thing.

While hope is a promising word, it can also feel very fickle and unrealistic and scary when you are in the trenches, waiting for something you want.  It can take you up to the highest point, and then drop you back down low again.  It can start to feel like shifting sand underneath your feet – an anchor at one point, and then unstable the next.

Hope also seems to have this cloak of weakness around it in our society.  You only hope for something when you aren’t sure of it happening.  You are only hoping because you aren’t strong enough to make it happen yourself.  You are living in the clouds.  Come back down here to earth with the rest of us and live in reality.  Basically – don’t get your hopes up.

Don’t get your hopes up.

Don’t get your hopes up.

Don’t get your hopes up.

Is there any other phrase laced with disappointment as much as this?  And yet, it is repeated over and over again.

I am from now on trashing that phrase from my vocabulary.  I will be getting my hopes up.  I mean high – really, really high.

Hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen”.  So if we don’t hope – if we let our hope go as so many say we should – we will no longer feel expectation or desire for a certain thing to happen.  This is, literally, death to our dreams.

Expectation.  When we expect something to happen, that means we are BELIEVING it to happen.  Now, whether you believe in God or the Universe or the Power of Attraction or all of the above, a basic tenant that runs through all of them is to BELIEVE that want you want will happen or is happening.  You must believe it wholeheartedly and feel it in your bones to be true for it to come to pass.  If we let go of this expectation, we are telling the energy and power in the world that we don’t really believe it can or will happen.

Desire. We hope for things we want, we desire, we long for, we burn for, we reach for, we ache for.  If we release hope, we basically release desire for that thing.  Without desire, we simply settle for where we are, for the status quo.  Without desire, change doesn’t occur.

It is scary to have hope.  I know it can be terrifying.  You become vulnerable and admit that you really, really want for something.  You are then open to pain and hurt if that thing doesn’t come to pass.  I’ve decided, though, that this is a much better outcome than never hoping or wishing or wanting at all.

It also means I have some control over the outcome.  I can use my hope and excitement to help make things come to pass.  I am not merely a bystander, waving my pompoms and wishing it all works out.  I am an active participant in my hope.  Hope is like a muscle you must strengthen – you need to work on it every day and fight that voice that says, “Look around.  This isn’t realistic.  Just sit down and don’t get your hopes up.”  You must keep your hopes up and believe every single day that what you hope for is happening.  You may not see the cogs and wheels moving and putting everything in motion, but they are.  They are moving for you, if you only continue to expect and desire.

Hoping for something more does not tell the universe you are unhappy with your current life.  You can be grateful for where you are, and still want for something more.  The only way we really make change in ourselves and our families and the world is by hoping for something greater – expecting it and desiring it – and then doing our best to make it happen.  Be the best you can be in your current situation, and also know you will be the best you can be in whatever situation you are hoping for.

Will there be disappointments?  Yes, I know there will.  But do I want to live a life with no hope, no high expectations, no big dreams and desires just because I’m scared of disappointment?  No, thank you.  I want to keep my hopes up high.  I want to believe for my dreams and passions.  I want to believe for the expectations and desires of my daughter and my husband and family and friends.  I will be the carrier of hope, even when others don’t or can’t.

So is hope a good thing?  I would venture to say hope might be the most good thing.  I will get my hopes up and keep them there.