Everything begins with hope

When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present....we experience heaven on earth. Sarah Breathnack

My world has narrowed into vistas of our backyard. It has become a daily joy of watching birds frolic in the giant apple tree, where they eat from the feeder or peck at the fruit just starting to appear. They chase each other around and about, squawking and twittering. Big birds. Little birds. Medium sized birds all vying for a place to perch upon the edge of the feeder, in the limbs of the trees or on the rim of the birdbath.

On the weekend, C.C. mounted the fountain I bought some months ago onto the outside wall of the garage. It's a replica of a fountain you might find in Italy or France, a lion's head with water spouting out of its mouth into a large cavern. This morning, I watched as two robins swam in the pool, splashing around, gaily singing as they pecked at themselves and each other.

It is a world of wonder.

Yesterday I received a call from someone I had spoken with once, about a year ago. She had called to ask my advice on her marriage. "I need to leave. I need to stay. I need to keep myself safe." Words I have heard many times from women all over who are mired in the arms of deceit, looking for sense in the nonsensical. "I can play his game," she said.

"Why would you want to?" I asked.

Life is a journey of seemingly small moments opened up into expanding horizons when we have the courage to ask the difficult questions we have been avoiding, or don't want to see, or don't want to face. Life is always a question of, Am I willing to do the right thing, or the easy thing? Am I willing to turn up in all my truth and beauty, warts and all, or do I want to keep pretending I don't see reality as it is.

My friend Mark posts a blog every morning. This morning, he wrote, "Maybe everything begins with hope. And ends without it."

When I contemplated the surgery on my foot, I hoped I'd feel better after it. Hoped I'd be able to run again, to ski, to hike, to do the things I love to do but have been limited in doing because of the damage to my foot. Sitting here in bed, with my foot up, watching the birds outside my window, that hope still lives. My foot is healing. I am becoming more adept at managing my crutches and less crotchety about being limited in my mobility. I have hope.

Someone dear to me is diagnosed with cancer and I pray he will be able to overcome it. I have hope, as does he and those who love him.

I watch the birds outside my window and am in awe of the beauty and the simplicity of life. Every morning they appear at the feeder in hope of finding food. When there is none, they flutter away to look elsewhere. There is always hope they will find it. There is always the hope that I will remember to fill it again before the next morning. Lying here watching them has become such a gift, their hope is not futile. I will ensure the feeder is always full.

Hope, like love, is always there. It is up to us to focus on what we want. To do the right thing to make it happen. To commit ourselves to believing; in our dreams, ourselves, the abundance of the universe, the power of love to give wings to our hope so that we can live free of fear there will be no tomorrow more beautiful than today.

There is always more beauty abounding when I live in hope of being more and more of who I am meant to be with each day passing. There is always the hope that I will create the life of my dreams with more clarity and vision when I live today as if it is my best day yet and stay focused on being my most magnificent self, in awe of the world around me, living this wild and precious life in the rapture of being alive.

Someone once told me hope was an empty word not worth speaking.

I disagree. Hope is the tiny spark that ignites our imaginations and transforms dreams into heaven on earth. Everything does begin with hope.

The question is: Are you letting go of hope to become mired in disbelief that there is nothing more, or nothing better for you, here on earth? Are you willing to count your blessings and transform your world into heaven on earth?