Optimism and hope are very different attitudes.

Optimism is the expectation – the certainty – that things will get better. Hope is the trust that the Gods and fates, and spirits we believe in will offer us the promise of a meaningful and compassionate life.

There are no guarantees beyond the choices we make and the promises we make to ourselves.

The optimist speaks of literal things that will come in the future.

The hopeful person lives in the moment to understand that knowledge and trust, and fortune are in his or her hands.

Hope is not about changing reality. Hope is about accepting it with grace.

There is no great spiritual leader in human history – Abraham, Moses, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, Mandela, the Dalai Lama,  Merton, Dr. King, Dorothy day – who was not hopeful; it was hope that gave them courage and guidance and strength.

They lived with a promise in their hearts that gave them the strength to fight for good, to believe that tomorrow can be better than today, even if they can’t know what tomorrow will look like.

They labored loneliness, persecution, fear,  pain, and danger greater than any of us face.

All of them saw love and hope as the most powerful weapons on the earth; they defeated and survived great and powerful challenges and deprivation.

They are the news I turn to when I need encouragement and faith.

The hopeful person is not surprised by difficulty but inspired and challenged by it. The hopeful person does not expect every day to be okay.

The hopeful person sees the world clearly, and as it is. He or she knows that suffering brings in the light. I choose hope, not resignation or gloom.