31 days of Hope - Day 1

I have decided to participate on a project of writing for 31 days about the same subject.  The Nester hosts a series every October where crazy fools all write every day for an entire month. Last year over 700 people participated.  I wanted to see if I could join them.  Writing every day might not be the problem, but writing every day on the same subject????  That makes it just a little more interesting. 

The rules are simple, you can pick any subject that you want to, you just have to write about it for the entire month of October.  I haven't tried this before and don't know how successful I will be, but I have chosen to write short blogs about Hope.
Wikepedia describes Hope as:  Hope is the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Despair is the opposite of hope. 
Hope is the "feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best" or the act of "look[ing] forward to something with desire and reasonable confidence" or "feel[ing] that something desired may happen". 
Other definitions are "to cherish a desire with anticipation"; "to desire with expectation of obtainment"; or "to expect with confidence".

I love that last line:  To expect with confidence.

Hope is something that I have felt bereft of lately.  The funny thing has been that I didn't even know that being without hope was the problem.  Living each day without hope can take so much out of you.  It impacts every single area of your life.  It causes exhaustion.  It causes doubt and despair.  It leaves your heart aching and your soul full of sorrow. 
Hope is necessary in all that we do.  It is the one thing that helps us to have the strength to go on.  Hope reminds us that we can get through whatever part of the road we are currently on.  One of my all-time favorite quotes is simply:  "The Bible often says, it came to pass;  it never says, it came to stay."
That phrase is about hope.  The ability to look beyond today and into the next moment, the next day, the next week and finally into forever. 

"Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all.”

Emily Dickinson