Choosing Hope #4: Hope for when things go bad

(Fourth in a week-long series on hope and optimism for the future.)

Some days it’s hard to see the good. I’m not talking about trying to be “sickeningly sweet and optimistic.” No, no, I’m talking about being realistic, but still seeing the good that comes up in life. We’ve all had those days. You try to be positive, but you read the bad news or evil seeps into your day. On those tough days, I come back to two simple poems: “If” and “Still I Rise.”

Rudyard Kipling wrote “If” in 1895 and Maya Angelou published “Still I Rise” from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems in 1978. I love the passion and care that’s behind both works.

Image by Pixabay.

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“If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;”

–From If by Rudyard Kipling

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Image by Pixabay.

“You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.”

–From Still I Rise by Maya Angelou.

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I love the messages, to be strong and take heart. Most importantly, I find that they give me hope for the future, for better tomorrows.

I hope they do the same for you.

Image by Pixabay.