The Sound of Hope
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
“Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, ‘Wait and Hope.”― Alexandre Dumas
Yesterday, my sister-in-law Tina got to ring this bell of hope at the Mayo Clinic.
Well-earned and deserved after six long months of treatment for breast cancer.
Doctors appointments, surgery, several hour and half trips to Rochester, radiation rounds followed by chemo, exhaustion, side-effects, rides in ambulances when white blood cells tanked and dehydration set in.
Feeling better just in time to go back for another round.
I sat with her for a little while yesterday and then had to leave for meetings.
I didn’t get to see her ring the bell but went past it when my brother walked me to the car.
We could all hear the bell loud and clear.
The sound of hope that waits with us through struggles, twists and turns and embraces us at the finish lines.
Hope that is tough, gritty, resilient, ass-kicking.
Pulling us forward when the path is hard, uphill and rocky.
Tina moved through this journey with grace, strength, toughness, resilience.
Way to fight the good fight Tina, carry hope well, showing others what the sound of hope is through a weathering journey.
As Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption wrote to Red, “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
So to the good thing, the best of things called hope and those who stick the landing of hope every day on paths not of their choosing but choosing hope over despair.
The beautiful sound of hope.
“We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
