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FULL OF SO MUCH HOPE
Friday Dec. 20, 2013
Today ends autumn 2013, a season that will never be seen or experienced again. What’s done is done, what is over is over, what is accepted is fine – and what is not accepted lingers on, holds-over to be one these three:
- a weight or burden we carry
- a task or challenge to resolve
- an opportunity or goal not yet fulfilled
We get to decide which kind of hold-over we want. For me, if something isn’t going to sustain me or propel me forward, then it will hold me back. I don’t want to be held back .
So, no holding back, lots of letting loose, lots of harnessed energy, focused, directed and intentional – to get things done, to make a difference in my corner of the world and, I hope, a small difference in yours . . .
On the surface, this looks like any other day we’ve already known, but beneath its horizon is a populace burgeoning with hope. Hope for energy, prosperity, jobs, food, innovation, celebration, laughter and love. Hope for more of everything good, hope for health, hope for wealth and hope for an end to suffering, poverty, war, starvation and disease . . . to name just a few of things people hope for.
It will be like so many other days gone by – except it is full of so much hope.
Yesterdays, you see, aren’t filled with hope. To be clear, they aren’t full of despair, regret or pain either. Those are all present day feelings, aren’t they?
Those yesterdays, in their day and for their time, have been very hopeful. But yesterdays, all of them, every one of them, are done, expired, over and deflated extinctions.
But today!
Today is always filled, piled high, overflowing its brim, with hope – optimism we have and share, collectively. So much that it boggles my imagination. Yours too I hope.
This morning I’ve been pondering this cliché: a new lease on life
It intrigues me.
Not just because leasing commercial real estate is and has been a significant part of my life for many years. Not because this metaphor applies to so many things in my life and the lives of friends and family – but because I see this next season that starts tomorrow, this new year that begins in 11 days as full of so many opportunities for new leases, renewals of leases and for new life as well as renewed vigor in life.
None of which deals with loss of lease, end of lease, end of life strategies – I’ll dwell on those another day.
For today, I’ll focus on new lease on life.
Is it a new lease on a car, home or office?
Is it harnessing dormant energy, or the euphoria that flows from doing so?
My research finds this phrase used often to describe new careers, birth of babies, remissions of disease, and changes in thinking. It seems I have some of these in my life or the lives of people near to me . . .
And there is another ingredient.
Hope.
Each time we tiptoe or leap into new, slip back into old, peak over horizons or around corners we do it with hopefulness. Hopefulness is seen by cynics as delusional brain candy for those who don’t like the look of reality. I would argue that hopefulness is for those who don’t care for the reality we live, so we take action to change it.
Hopefulness without a plan or strategy is equivalent to closing eyes tight while our fingers are crossed. But, with a plan. With an idea.
With a strategy – man, that’s a plan!
If we never had hope, we would never have disappointments – but then, if we never had disappointments, it would prove we never had hope.
We’ve all had hope.
We have hope now and we’ll have hope in the future.
What are we doing about the plan?
I’ve found variations on this theme, this quote, in so many places attributed to so many ancient poets I’m only sure it is old. So, it seems only right to credit my friend Simon Batcup who first provided it to me:
“Hope without action is a dream. A dream without a plan is a nightmare”
Today, and tomorrow too, can be places of actions and plans for nearly everyone of us – a place to play, hope, and dream.
A place to plan.
A place for action.
A place, and a time, where we sign up a new lease on life.
Every day we let slide by without hope in it, is just one day less that we live fully.
Think about it this way:
. . . tomorrow, with or without hope, you’ll be a day older with one day less to live in your life – so maybe it will be a better experience with some hope in it. Or a lot better . . .
Tomorrow is year’s shortest day – making tonight it’s longest night, which gets even longer if you go to bed really early.
Mark Kolke
200,416
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: -12C / 11F, overcast, light breeze. Gusta seems happy with another day or a longer walk than usual – perhaps she believes she’s getting more exercise, more fresh air and losing weight. Or, maybe she’s just getting more time to plan her actions so she can have a new lease on life too.
Comments Received:
Hi Mark, Your column brings to mind the famous line from the movie Forest Gump, “… life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get…”., DK, Edmonton, AB
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