Where Hope Abides

Friday Morning

It's Friday morning here. Early. The sun was waking up when I came to my office. I said thanks for another day, for a beautiful beginning to it, for the greening of the spring grass. I asked for some hope because if like some others of us, my life is feeling like a shadowed valley these days. While I wake each day with the intent of climbing out of the valley, I tend to slide back down the muddied slopes.

That in itself is cause for hope if, like me, you're having to look really hard, because we can still climb back up, muddied and bloodied but unbowed. Not really that good, because I'm tired and I'm old, but hope doesn't have boundaries, does it?

Since I talked to you last, I've seen pictures that have reminded me we're still here. I've read articles about what great kids are all around us.

When veterans are being disrespected and the VA being ravaged, this still stands in New Jersey.

https://warrensculpture.com/project/new-jersey-vietnam-veterans-memorial/

There were storms in the Midwest this week. Big ones that created a lot of damage. People in this neck of the woods do what they can almost always be counted on to do--they helped. The baseball game between Triton and Tippecanoe Valley was postponed, so the Valley players got on a school bus and went to Triton to help them clean up.

Earlier, the Manchester Squires basketball team, who went on to win their first-ever state championship, paid a visit en masse to Timbercrest Senior Living. On game day, residents sent the parade of buses and Squires fans off with signs and cheers. Wheelchairs, it appears, have no negative affect on pride, enthusiasm, and encouragement. They are things that come without an expiration date.

Photo: North Manchester News-Journal

"Life ain't about the degrees you get; it's about the service you give." - Cory Booker

I was never without faith, but I didn't go to church for a long time. I had reasons, but then many years ago, walking on the road by our house one Sunday morning and talking to Marabel See out by her mailbox, I realized that I had more reasons to go than not to.

One of my reasons for not going to church regularly and finding one to stay with was that none of them were a precise fit. But then that day, I sat with Marabel in the fourth pew on the left and found a good-enough fit and a church that will always be home to me. I changed a few years ago and I'm home again in another building. Still not a precise fit, but a comfortable one nonetheless.

In these buildings, with other believers, I feel hope.

Hearing and reading the stories of these teenagers, I feel hope.

Looking at a respectful sculpture of people who served so honorably and well makes me feel hope.

Watching the sun rise, then watching it set again when the day is done ... hoping I've done right things, said right things, and done no harm in the process ... I feel hope.

Have a great week. I wish you hope, too. Be nice to somebody.