I sometimes feel like I need to revisit this concept– where hope resides– for several reasons. One is that sometimes I find myself thinking about it and the different ways and places I find hope in my life. And other times things happen, things that affect all of us in some way, and it’s so easy to lose hope.
This time it’s a combination of reasons that led me to write this today. I had already been thinking about it while I was swimming the other day and then it was like the phrase “where hope resides” kept coming back to me.
I find hope in many places. I can see that I learned early how important it was to somewhere in my mind have ideas of where I find hope because life can easily drag us down. I don’t believe life does this intentionally (unless we make intentional decisions that lead to events that will do that), but, to me, part of life feels like a board game. We move forward, we move back, we are stalled. How are we not just going to survive but thrive in that?
Right now I’m finding hope in summer. I realize that might sound obvious given my lifestyle brand is named Chelle Summer, but there’s something inspiring about the sun’s warmth, everything in full bloom, and the color we see around us. Hope resides in swimming laps in that warm sunshine, cooling off from the intense heat in the pool. Hope resides from seeing my three dogs sitting in the shade around the pool watching me, happy to be with me. And hope resides in having those moments to let my mind wander, to think about the day that has past, and what’s ahead,
Hope resides somewhere for all of us and not in just one place. It’s up to us to find it, but I believe it’s there. Take a step back if you’re not feeling it today or any day it feels far away. Think about where you’ve found hope before. And if you don’t find hope there now, look for another place. It’s there, maybe burning faintly, but it’s definitely there.