HOPE

I had been incarcerated about a year following my trial when one Sunday morning I woke up with HOPE on my mind and knew I had to write.  We always had breakfast about 4a.m.  Once everybody ate they all went back to sleep as was the routine on Sunday mornings.  So I sat down by myself on that peaceful morning and wrote the following in about 5 minutes and smiled the rest of the day.

People seem amazed saying I never stop, I never give up, even after 5 long years of this struggle [4 years prior to the trial and 1 year incarcerated].  The truth is hope never gave up on me!  I wasn't able to stop it even when I tried (and I did!):

• I could stomp on it.
• I could spit on it.
• I could call it "false".
• I could even fool myself, for a moment, into believing I could turn my back and walk away from it.

But, I finally reached the conclusion, so long as one chooses life, there is hope.  Hope is part of the human spirit, the underlying belly of faith, a driving force in our existence:

• Hope is persistent.
• Hope is audacious.
• Hope is fathomless.
• Hope has no bounds.
• Hope soars in the face of potential destruction.

When I set aside anger, sadness, resentment and have exhausted the victim script...there remains HOPE, as solid as the earth and as ethereal as God Himself.

To this day I refer back to this when I get to thinking this will never end.  I also have to remind myself all things have beginnings and endings.