Issue #26
Hope is an essential gift we have been given as human beings. Hope is the capacity for believing that tomorrow will be better. Without hope, we are wandering through a dark, desolate world. We are at the mercy of our fears and doubts. Hope allows us to see beyond the current trouble we are experiencing. In our worst moments, must remember that life will get better. There is always light at the end of the tunnel, even when we can't see it.
As artists, writers, and creative leaders, we need to believe that the next painting, the next poem, or the next idea will be our best. Hope keeps us writing, painting, and acting in the face of self-doubt and failure. If we were to quit now, we would never know what was around the next corner or what opportunities lay ahead.
Creative leaders need hope because we live in a very negative, sometimes hostile world that often does not understand or appreciate our creative work. I have been writing seriously for over fifty years and have yet to receive acceptance and recognition for the work I have produced. A smarter person might have quit many years ago, but I keep plugging away.
Do you have faith in your creative ideas? Your poems? Your stories? Your paintings? Your ability to become another person on stage? Do you have dark days when you want to quit and live a normal life? Hope keeps us going even when everything and everybody around us is telling us to give up — that we have no talent, no gift.
What keeps you going during those darkest hours? Why do you believe in your ideas? Where does your hope come from? Don't give up. Keep dreaming. Keep hoping. Keep believing. In every winter, you will find the flowers of spring.
Very nice article Harley. I enjoyed it but at 91 and on Hospice I will just enjoy yours and still might write a poem or two, but I am afraid my creative ability has been used up. Best to you as you keep at it.
Hello Harley, nice essay. Good question: what gives me hope, where does it come from? I believe in The One who believes in me. According to Him, I'm a work in progress, and always will be. He's promised that the best is yet to come, if not in this life, in the next.
As for writing, what keeps me going is the desire to improve, to produce something that others will find inspiring, entertaining, enlightening, humorous, or worthwhile for some other reason. One of the things that helps me improve is reading good work by others such as yourself, Harley. I love your poems, story poems, and essays. Keep up the good work!