This title is a quote from my favourite show, Downton Abbey, of course. If you have followed my writing at all I am sure you know that. I was standing at the front window looking to the east as the sun was appearing and thought to myself how blessed I am. Where there is life we can find hope, or as Mrs. Hughes said, there “is” hope. The question is what does hope look like. Hope to one is different than hope to another.
I am on a journey of hope right now. In the moment, I asked the question, “are you afraid of dying?” and was told no. That brought me hope. Hope that people can, even on their death bed, can reassure and remind me fear and hope are both found within.
Most recently I had a very restless sleep because I was fearful. My imagination was running away with me. I had latched onto a thought, and this thought had turned from a passing wonder into a dark, scary monster. I was lying in bed, in the darkest night, and this monster just took me over. My breathing quickened, my heart rate increased and my head felt like it was going to explode! Honestly, our thoughts are so dangerous.
Funny tho’ as the next day I was listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book Your Erroneous Zones and it helped me with that dark night of thinking, thinking, thinking. Thoughts are just that, thoughts. We set up fears, hopes, dreams, actions on nothing but thoughts. Everything in our lives is driven by a thought! It is how we direct these thoughts and what thoughts we allow into our world that matters. When the neighbour’s great aunt dies, we never even give it a second thought, and yet, something happens in our world we give it second, third, fourth ….. fifteenth thoughts! So much real estate is taken up with the “what if’s” , we about drown. The key to releasing my biology from the ravish of the stress was to change my thoughts. Now don’t get me wrong….. this is hard. The thing is tho’ it is possible!
Where there is life there is hope, reminds me each day we are given a day of life and then we can choose what to do with it. Watching my children and grandkids reminds me of how much can be done in a day. Sitting at the bedside of the dying reminds me how to live the one beautiful life I am given. On the death bed, there is no do-overs, no going back, nothing in the past can be changed. So, where there is life there is hope you will live with integrity, honesty, and love.
Start a plant from a clipping and watch it grow. Think about that when your mind takes off. Study a bird in the sky, dipping and soaring, and when a thought takes you down the 400 series highway, jump on the wings of that bird in your mind and take to the skies, let go of the spiralling thought downward and find hope in the positive. This is a practice, not a gift.
My life is about to change yet again. Previously, I would have felt shame that yet again I am migrating, pulling up stakes, re-rooting my soul, but plants remind me we can flower and grow anywhere when we have the right conditions. Where there is life there is hope. Hold on to that!
#breakingstibah
#breakingstibah 