Hope – in a Baker’s Dozen…

There is something about the New Year that people find brings forth new hope.  The end of one year can mark a finishing point, a place at which past events can be gently put to one side – gone but not forgotten – and eyes can look to the future.  A renewed positivity can be enjoyed and many people see it as a time when they can reassess their life targets. 

What was impossible to grasp in December can seem, in January, be reachable again. 

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is fairly easy to be cynical about the New Year – and the opportunities it brings for a reappraisal of life, the universe and everything!  Of course, where things are viewed pessimistically, can there ever be much hope?  We must all have hope – that wish that something will happen (and the expectation as well, that the wish will be fulfilled, granted or come to pass).  Some wishes – much alike to unrequited love – may never see their apotheosis – but what is the harm in hoping?

“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that  hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof”

– Barbara Kingsolver

Each New Year allows for a revival of hope and optimism.  Optimism comes about when hope is around. Hope is the attitude’s emotional force, its partner, its support, its servant. It may sometimes be brief, but it is powerful.  When the New Year arrives people often make resolutions which they know will never be carried through – the triumph (although fleeting!) of hope over experience. 

Why then bother with it at all you may ask? 

Because without Hope we have no anticipation, no confidence, no future…

Because Hope, in facing the inevitability of a tomorrow, does not consider the possibility of failing,

but strives for the equal possibility of succeeding.

Sy’t op 31 Desember 2010 – Oujaarsdag-agtermiddag – die nes gegrawe. 5 ure lank met die agterpote gegrou… die eiers gelê en daarna versigtig toegemaak.

Ongestoord, terwyl ek by haar gesit het en video’s en foto’s geneem het en met haar gechat het en die H3 die koffie en siggies aangedra het (‘n girl kan ook net só lank droëbek en plat op haar se agterent in ‘n bedding deurbring 😀 )

She gave me one of the most perfect gifts at year-end – a year which required me to look at hope in a whole new way – At the turn of the decade she gave me the symbol of hope – not just one, but 13 eggs! A whole Baker’s dozen of hope – as if to say – “one for each month of 2011, BB… and one more – just for in case.”

En nou Allermooistes:

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how grey the day may appear.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-byes.

I wish you enough happiness to make you sweet.

I wish you enough trials to make you strong,

I wish you enough sorrow to keep you human and

I wish you enough HOPE to make you truly happy…

Here’s to HOPE– and a Happy 2011!!

Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster,

to give you a future and a hope.”