When Hope Needs To Be Personal
Day 12 of 21 Days of Hope
It is easy to talk about hope in grand, abstract, global terms. It is a mighty virtue that lends itself well to grand discourses.
But what happens when crisis hits home? When a problem is personal? When you are too close to it to even contemplate hope?
To be fair, nobody faced with a monumental personal crisis usually has the wherewithal to keep hope in the moment. The bigger the crisis, the less likely one is to find themselves able to find hope and stick to it.
And it is okay.
When it comes to matters that are personal, hope is an afterthought, and a tool that works the best in retrospection.
To expect people to somehow find hope in the middle of a living nightmare is unrealistic and unhealthy. People need to survive their crises in ways they deem the best. Putting up a brave front is great, but to expect people to just bury how they feel — their fear, their pain, their despair, is problematic and plain unfair.
People need to feel. They need to process. They need to cope.
Hope comes after. Hope is the tool that prevents us from clinging to the fragments of our nightmare. Hope allows us to move on. Hope is the sobering realization that we are still here despite everything, and there is a life ahead we need to live.
You may not be able to keep hope when you are too close to a crisis. But you need hope to be able to bounce back when the time comes.
And those who remember to find hope when they need it the most, are the ones who survive the most impossible odds.
Until next time
Find your hope!
