Magic and Hope are two important words to me. So much so that they are the name of my website. I believe that there is Magic in the world at every turn, in all different shapes and sizes, and I’ve written about Magic previously.
But today, we’re going to take a look at Hope.
Living without Hope is an awful feeling. We’ve all been there. It doesn’t feel good. No, it doesn't. Living without Hope means living in fear and despair and with a feeling of giving up.
If you were to take a poll and ask what the opposite of Joy is, more than likely many people would respond by saying anger was the opposite. Yet it is not. With the emotion of anger, a person feels intensely. They may be ready to react! Strike out! Verbally! Even physically! There is action behind anger. A person may scream or plot revenge. They are motivated! They may be motivated in inappropriate ways, but at least they have a fire in their belly.
No, anger is not the opposite of Joy. A sense of despair is the opposite of Joy. Frozen despair. A feeling there is no future. Fear, grief, and an inability to move forward is the opposite of feeling Joyful. And we’ve all been there, too. There is no movement. There's not any anger. There is a pervasive feeling of nothingness.
This leads us to the topic of Hope.
But how can I feel Hope if my world has come crashing down? How can I feel Hope if there is no future? And no chance of that changing? We all have experienced sad times, times of grief, of loss, of despair. And sometimes it takes a while… in many cases, a long while… to get back on our feet. Yet sometimes that pervasive sense of fear or despair grips us and won’t let go. We're not talking about depression. Rather, it's a loss of expectation. A loss of desire. A loss of the future. We lose Hope in the future.
I’m going to pose a recipe for getting Hope back.
And it has to do with our stubborn natures.
Sometimes we are stubborn and will only settle for what we “know” will make us happy. And we keep trying to recreate the past, because after all, in the past we were happy. We look for the familiar. We search for a repeat. We want our old life and self to return.
However, maybe we are holding on to something that is desperately trying to shake us loose.
So, as a recipe for Hope, let the old BE GONE! Let it fly away, since it’s trying to run from us anyway. It really doesn’t want to be our friend anymore. We are the ones trying to hang on to something that is over, done, finished!
In these times of despair, and of fear for our future, we can give ourselves permission to break free. It's the perfect time. Break free from our old selves, our old habits, our old stubborn belief that there is only one way (okay, maybe two ;-) to feel happy again. Sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zone and strike out in a new direction. This is the time to get angry (provokes action!) and say, “I’m through! That old way didn’t serve me! I don’t want that again!” (Reasons to not hang on to the past?)
Hope IS available to come knocking at our door again. A different future is trying to get our attention, you know. This process of change may take some serious attention, and it can start by giving up asking for the same life to continue, thinking it will serve us again. We can allow a new (Hopeful) future to creep in, little by little, as we set out in a new direction. That new direction will be fueled by new choices, different decisions, and letting go of the old stuff that made us feel despair.
We don’t want that old stuff anymore. It may be familiar. But it wasn’t our friend.
Hope. It can be rekindled. If we don’t give up on our (stubborn ;-) selves.
Sending everyone...
Mary Gordon is a clairvoyant and clairsentient intuitive. She provides readings for clients who are wanting clarity, counsel, and help with decisions, or to check in to see if they are on the right track. Visit her at MagicAndHope.com.