Hope for Hope and Where I could Find It

         I asked a question of a Zebra (rare conditions) group of which I'm a member: how do they manage to have hope for the future?

These are people who for the last year have suffered with their world of loved ones as those they love were suddenly plunged into inner and outer chaos they've never known before. 

These people have grieved with them at the indescribable loss, fear, heartache, and uncertainty seeped from under the shock of their reality being torn away like a facade, leaving a foreign existence in its wake.

These people have been present for them as the stress and isolation has eaten at them like an acid, dissolving and transforming whatever has been left.

These people offered support and understanding to a world of loved ones who were so overwhelmed with their chaos they didn't realize the gift they were being offered.

The gift of experience.

The gift of empathy.

The gift of the knowledge and wisdom that has come from having lived things like these for some time before it hit their loved ones' world.

        The gift of knowing how to navigate the wasteland that is this kind of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual loss. These kinds of medical and other, life-shattering things that tear loved ones from them and cause them to suffer beyond description, themselves.

        And they gave me responses. 

        I have come to understand one thing that has haunted me nearly my entire life. How is it we keep going in such a state? Why do we keep breathing when every breath can feel deflating, and each heartbeat can feel like mockery? Why do we keep going, despite it all?

        Do you want to know what I learned?

        We find hope. We find it, create it, and share it. We hope for hope, if that's all we have left. Sometimes we curl up in the cold darkness, and hope the shivering won't last forever. We know dawn comes, as it always has, and will again, even if it isn't set by a clock or calendar.

Some go out for walks.

Some look at the sky through their window.

They reach out to others, and reach back when it's offered.

They talk to their pets, or their plants.

They find something new to love,

even if they find out they don't love it, after all.

They create. Paint. Craft. Write. Perform.

They learn. Research. Educate.

They help build awareness.

They meditate, and/or allow mindfulness to bring them into balance.

They pray, and hope for miracles.

They find ways to fill the spaces where the chaos and emptiness live, and carefully push them out.

They just keep living, within the confines of their circumstances,

as they have and will for the rest of their lives,

looking for meaning and purpose along the way.

        Anyway, just thought I'd share, in case it matters or maybe helps anyone. It could possibly sound like long-winded dribble, and that's okay, too. I'll just be over here, hoping for hope and anyone else is welcome to join me.

        Better days ahead, my friends!