"In Darkness is Kindled the Fiercest of Hopes!"

"Hope" is an interesting word. In some languages, it's the same word for "expect" or "wait". In others, it's the same word as "confidence" or "knowledge", as in, something as fact. For some people, the word has a connotation as being overused and corny, but to others it feels as though a ray of light is shining onto their hearts.

No matter how it falls to your ears, I can say with certainty that there isn't enough going around.

Hope is a remarkably strong emotion. I'd say it's the second strongest, next to Love. The problem is that very few people of our age are experiencing enough Hope. I see people saying things like "Fuck expectations, all that's left is disappointment." and "We are all hypocrites, anyway." People are losing hope in themselves, in others, and in humanity as a whole. This nihilistic worldview hurts me so much to see. People need that ray of light to shine on their hearts-- They need something to lift them up.

The world is dark. It is war-torn, decayed, ragged, and barren. One thing it is not, however, is hopeless. A lot of people ask where Hope can be found. They see countries ravaged by poverty and famine. They see lives of loved ones taken by war. They see divorce. They see drugs. They see tragedy.

You can find hope within the ones you love. Your best friends, your family, your wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, sisters, brothers... These people can give you hope. However, it is not something that is done actively. We cannot transfer hope to other people. We can, however, set an example for our loved ones. We can give a smile to someone who needs one. We can give a crying child a new ice cream cone after she spilled hers on the sidewalk. We can return the wallet we found; cards, cash, and all.

I think of the word Hope a little bit differently than most, I would think. Hope to me is more than desperate uncertainty, gambling on a lucky die roll or coincidence. Hope to me is more certain that that. It's a very powerful thing, Hope. I urge you all to look toward the future with Hope, and look into the past only to relive a happy memory.

Our time is so short on this Earth. Everything we do-- Every drop of water we drink, every breath of life-giving air we take, every laugh we share with friends, everything we do should be an expression of Love. When we do this, we have such a great opportunity to inspire Hope in those we interact with! We can live in Harmony this way.

My favorite book to read when I need inspiration to find Hope is Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien. It may seem silly, but I always feel a very strong connection to the Hobbits in that book series. They are faced with such strong challenges, and due to their stature they are doubted by very many. (For those unfamiliar to the series, Hobbits or 'Halflings' are only half as tall as a grown man.) However, they have such powerful hearts that the challenges they face are defeated! It truly is something to admire. I hope to someday have Hope the way those characters do.

"By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

"What are we holding onto, Sam?"

"That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."