Hope

Hope is the fortitude that resists the current flowing to the mundane and vapid. Hope rises above the current and aims for dreams newly born and not yet quantified. Hope is not confined to time limits or statistics or realities, for it is an aspiring sensation from deep within the heart. Hope is the perennial fuel for ambitions, not yet mechanized into  spreadsheets and deadlines and paperwork. Hope does not have to be rational or good, it only has to exist for its power to be manifested.

Or at least that is what I hope.

---

I do not know if I agree with this post but I do know that it seems not to matter.

The World at My Feet

Inspired by the image

Pixabay/user:Comfreak

Here I sit

with the world at my feet

and my dreams in the sky

But where am I?

What if I

kick off my shoes

how long will they take to land?

What if I

reach out my hands

will I touch the clouds?

Or the moon?

The stars?

The sun?

Or will I get

too close?

Too close to the sun

Instead of kicking off my shoes

will they be burned off my feet?

I see

but I cannot touch

I dream

but I cannot achieve

Here I sit

with the world at my feet

and my dreams in the sky

But where am I?

Hope?

Hope

it allows us to dream dreams

of heavens and royalty and love and other treasures

when we have nothing of the kind

when we have nothing

hope allows us to dream of having something

it can lift our spirits and guide our actions

hope allows for wonderful visions of the future

when the present is anything but wonderful

How glorious and empowering hope can be

***

Oh, but of dashed hopes

of false hope

of lost hope

of wrongful promises

of cracked dreams

of shattered faith

How disastrous that can be

How vengeful that can be

Of a man who had his trust, his faith, his everything

in his hope

and somehow, lost it all

How disastrous that can be

How vengeful that can be

He then sets his life mission to be

to thwart and reverse every action he had his hope in

Oh, to lose hope

How disastrous that can be

How vengeful that can be

one’s purpose seems to have vanished

one’s goal seems to be part of magician’s disappearing act

***

Hope

Hope is like a fire

it can create or it can destroy

it can give warmth and change things to a better state

or it can rip, rend, and sear its image on us.

Hope is like a fire

it can be the one thing between

life and death

sometimes the life giver

sometimes the death bringer

***

Hope seems to be able to bring us

to the highest heights

and yet the deepest depths

because power can work both ways

for and against us.

So is it right to hope at all?

***

To have shining, bright, up lifting hope

and yet to have

cracked, shattered, broken hope

Is it right to hope at all?

No

It is not right to have that kind of hope

hope that can be shattered like glass

is nothing to have hope in at all

something easily broken should not carry our dreams

for dreams are immense beings

that grow and change and have lives of their own

and a fragile container such as a glassy hope

is not fitting for dreams.

***

So dream dreams

and hope everyday

for things of risk

are things of reward

---

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:19-21

The Architect

He had a plan,

a dream really.

He was going to build

the most beautiful mansion

for him and his future wife to live in.

It would be where they would laugh,

dance,

cry,

throw parties,

live life and grow old together.

It would be their sanctuary from the world,

their piece of peace.

All that would matter is that it would be their’s,

together,

and he was going to build it.

His midnight thoughts were consumed with this grand project,

instead of his girl laying next to him.

He had all the blueprints,

the best laid plans,

perfect.

French doors,

marble counter tops,

balconies,

acres and acres of gardens.

It would all be for her,

it would take years,

but it would all be for her.

He kept it a secret,

he wanted this house to be a surprise.

But in his endeavors,

he grew distant,

skipped Sunday movie night,

didn’t showed up for dates,

even when he did, he seemed far off in his own world.

Little did his girlfriend know was that

he was dreaming of their future,

but couldn’t stay in the present.

Little did she know

Little did she know

Little did she know

Finally, she had enough

enough waiting

enough being let down

enough being put on the sidelines

Little did the Architect know about how she felt

Little did the Architect know about how she felt

Little did the Architect know about how she felt

Finally, the mansion was ready

enough walls painted

enough missing time with his girlfriend

enough calls about the house that he had to cover up

She said the two words before he did

She said “break up”

He said “marry me”

The Architect built something magnificent for his magnificent

but all he was left with was the shell and not the reason

Too much of his time was built on a future to never happen

He had a plan,

a dream really.

He was going to build

the most beautiful mansion

for him and his future wife to live in.

It would be where they would  . . .

Pixabay/user:Wokandapix

The Cost

We can dream dreams of grandeur

of expensive things

of exotic places

of opulent people

of glorious actions

that some of the best events

that some of the best moments

of our lives

must cost us the most.

We can dream dreams of grandeur

but finding the simplicity in reality

I discovered,

are the best events

best moments

of our lives.

And the only cost

is to take the time to enjoy it.

 

Dreams

Dreams

they are our belief in the future

a belief that we have a part in the future

that we can shape our part of the future

that we can decide our destiny

that we can make our dreams into our destiny.

Dreams

they give us a purpose

we make them our purpose

to chase after this life long goal

to pursue this passionate desire

one that was bred from childhood wonders

one that was bred from teenage rebellion

one that was bred from adulthood sensibilities

one that was bred from midlife discontentment

one that was bred from waning years un-fulfillment

one that was bred from our fore fathers’ “American Dream”

And so we hunt down that purpose, desire, goal

to capture the happiness, fulfillment, success

that we projected on to it.

Dreams

they give us a reason to wake up in the morning

we make them a reason to wake up in the morning

that each day we are getting closer to the prize

when the days are tough

when there seems to be no end to the darkness

the dream is something to look to

somewhere that becomes a safe place

something where all of life’s troubles will be cleared away

something where all of life’s joys will be there

they become a magical fantasy of the mind.

Dreams

if we only

work harder

jump higher

run faster

sing louder

reach further

chase longer

want greater

we could attain them,

this is the lie they tell us

this the lie we tell ourselves

that more will be enough.

Dreams

we put our best into them

best years

best choices

best actions

best energy

best passions

best everything

and they take them.

Yet they are of our own creation

we made them

we make them into something more than dreams

more that goals

more than desires

we make them into illusions of colossal vitality

unattainable to any human hands

and we know this

but we still keep on trying

because

we like to believe

in false hopes

because they give us hope.

And today we will dream

and tomorrow we will dream

because we believe in hope.

---

 

In response to Jay Gatsby’s creative passion for hope and dreams in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby. 

Note: Dreams and goals are good but when they become an obsession-like idol  of perfection they cease to be dreams at all.

 

Delusions Vs. Allusions

I am no dreamer

Creating Holland meadows of tulips

out of the daring dandelion growing in the crack in the broken sidewalk

I am no dreamer

Conjuring Olympic gold medals for swimming

when I just learned the back stroke

I am no dreamer

but I do dabble a little in daydreams

My dreams are not as high as the Kilimanjaro

Nor as vast a child’s cry in Africa

My dreams are the small hills of corn fields in Nebraska

My dreams are the length of one corner to the other in a smile

My dreams are not loud and pumpkin carriages

but kept to my private thoughts and fresh made pies in a dwarf cottage

I am no dreamer

I make do not make delusions of grandeur

I make allusions of hope

Sometimes

The world isn’t giving me hope

So I create a little of my own.

Like Fireworks Underwater

Like Fireworks Underwater

I can imagine it

The spray nipping at my face from the explosion

A muffled boom

The color majestically mixing with the sea green

My neck doesn’t hurt from staring up, but gazing down

‘Ahhh’ reflect off of the lake and do not melt in the misty dark

Sparks drown

I can imagine it

but it is impossible

The imagination allows us to be in the realm of the unreal

We believe, out of necessity, that we can make the unreal, real

We need a hope

Striving to make this world ‘farther from the actual, and nearer to the imaginative’*

That hope comes from something so fragile

Ohhh, how fragile the mind is

Playing make-believe with real lives and excepting it to turn out like my Grandma’s apple pie

Sometimes life isn’t sweet

so we like to dream up something better

Living Reveling in the unreality

A reality of millionaires

A reality of true loves

A reality of peace

A reality of no persecution

A reality of equality

A reality of Okay-ness

A reality of happiness

A reality of fairy tales

A reality of no short straws pulled

A reality of no tooth aches

A reality of Hakuna Matata

A reality of power

A reality of dreams

A reality such as this is very unlikely

But what is hope supposed to be then?

Sugar Plums aren’t dancing in my head,

Underwater Fireworks are.

Foter / CC BY-SA

• * From The Custom-House of the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Accomplish Dreams

Accomplish dreams

If I accomplish dreams

I want to accomplish dreams

I will accomplish dreams

I am going to accomplish dreams

I am accomplishing dreams

I accomplish dreams

I was accomplishing dreams

I accomplished dreams

I did accomplish dreams

Dreams accomplished

?