THURSDAY THOUGHTS - Hope: Serene, Confident, Steady, and Strong...

Each year as winter comes to a close and the weather warms up, I find myself anticipating new flowers, new warmth, and new life. It has been said that hope is anything but wishful. It is expectation based on experience. And so each year as Spring draws closer, my spirits tend to lift as the newness of the season approaches. My heart feels lighter as the chill of Winter drops into the background once again.

I found a wonderful quote which expresses my feelings and I wish to share it with you. Once again, I don't know the author, but I hope these words resonate with you as they did with me:

"I see Hope clearly now. She is serene. Her eyes have the deep knowing look of someone well acquainted with sorrow, the luminosity of recently being wet with tears. Hope has the confidence of one who clearly sees a bright future even when the next hours seem fog shrouded. Hope is steady and strong, a friend I am glad to have beside me during my own trials."

Trials come in all varieties and it seem they are everywhere around us. Whether they involve our health,finances, social injustice, family issues, or emotional insecurities, the serenity of hope can give us the strength to keep going; to "Keep on Keepin' on" as my Grandma Belle always used to say. Hope is never far away and is a friend that each of us can hang on to when the going gets tough.

Kathy Christensen
Guest Blogger
Sister Survivor