Hope-The Secret Key to Happiness

While faith
Is that steady hand
Your spirit holds on to,
HOPE is that burning fire
Kept alive in your own heart.

IS THERE NOTHING BEAUTIFUL IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE?

Is there nothing beautiful in this world anymore? Is there nothing at all that can delight us and give us hope? How many times have we felt we’ve seen it all, and there is nothing more that can inspire us the way things have inspired us before? How many times have we felt there is nothing more that can move us, that there is nothing more that can touch our hearts and bring our eyes to tears?

Were the people of old merely more sentimental, and we more practical in our thoughts and ways? Were the folks that have lived before us merely too unfortunate to have fewer things with which to content themselves, or have we found too many things that overwhelm us, and we have lost sight of those things that can truly make us happy?

What has changed? What has passed? Whatever faded that the more we grew and learned, the more we saw the shadows, the more our eyes longed for the beauty that faded through the passing of the years?

Was it really something that left us, never ever to return? The crispness of the morning air smothered by the urban smog? The pristine waters of brooks and streams, now ever rare as dark shadows crept even the mightiest of seas? The freshness of flowers in gardens now finding but lesser and lesser space in the city’s towering skyscrapers? Or was it something in our eyes that blurred our vision, such that we look and stare but we can no longer see?

What are we after anyway? What do we yearn to see? Is it beauty still? Is it goodness still? Or have we shifted our gaze from things eternal and pure to thrills that excite our senses but never satisfies us in the end?

Worse, we may not be looking anymore, we may not believe anymore that there is something beautiful in the world, in us, in one another. We are afraid to look. And everything we do seems only to escape the emptiness within that all the wealth and glitter of the world we have created cannot really fill.

Look within. There is wisdom and unspeakable peace that await you. Look again. There is still wonder in the single drop of dew that clings upon the faded petal of a rose. Look with a new pair of eyes and with a new heart. A heart filled with courage. A heart filled with faith, believing that there is still some beauty in the human soul, and in the breath of God blowing upon its creatures, making all things new, revealing all things beautiful.

This people will listen and listen, but not understand; they will look and look, but not see, because their minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them. – Matthew 13:14-15 (TEV)

WHAT IF…

What do we look forward to?
When we were kids,
we looked forward to growing up
when we were teenagers,
we looked forward to finishing our studies
when we were young adults,
we looked forward to getting a job
when we were finally stable,
we looked forward to getting married,
when we got married,
we looked forward to having kids
when we had kids,
we looked forward to seeing them grow up
and so the cycle goes….
but what if we stopped
somewhere
when we were adults
thinking what life really means
what a life that matters really is
and what we’d really like to do
will the cycle stop?
shall we move on to another circle?
after our soul searching
the cycle may go on
we marry
we have kids
we look forward to them growing up
but then all the while
that this happens
a change within tells us
things are finally different
not because we’ve headed in a different direction
but because we took the road
with a new heart
and a fresh new pair of eyes.

Hope is not the property of depressed people. People are depressed because they have lost their hope.

No matter how other people try to convince them to think more positively, to motivate themselves and to envision a better future, they cannot be convinced because they cannot find the “feelings” that will match the good things and visions they hear.

HOPE, if it should be true hope, should be alive. It is not a mere promise. It is not a distant dream. It is something that is present and living, something that connects one’s present life to that distant dream.

He who has HOPE in his heart is happy. To such a person, the feeling of a wonderful future has already come. He has in a way, TRANSCENDED Time.

He who has hope will be successful. His current actions are propelled by inspirations of a wonderful life he sees ahead. He who is without hope does not strive for anything. He cannot see the star that will light his path.

Whenever you feel that little spark of hope within, listen to it and nourish it. Never quench it with pessimism or useless talks.

Hope is a living being that should always be a part of who you are. Like the very breath in your body, keep it ever near.

Hope is not mere optimism,
It is a certainty
That joy
Shall happen
Shall come
Shall prevail!

I WILL SMILE AGAIN

I will smile again
Though tears flow from these eyes
I will smile again
And trust tomorrow the sun shall rise
Though darkness may enfold me
Though heavy rain can’t help but pour
Though shattered, lost and broken
Though heart could barely bear it all
Though tired and weary and confused
Though badly hurt and bruised
I know that I will smile again
And I will smile again!

Check Jocelyn's books:

"Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief", "Mend My Broken Heart", "Questions to God", "To Love an Invisible God", "Defending My Catholic Faith", and more - click here.

(You may freely quote excerpts from this website as long as due credit is given to author Jocelyn Soriano and the website itakeoffthemask.com)