Refreshing Words Of Hope by William Klein

Blaise Pascal said, “You should always keep something beautiful in your mind.”  It’s hard to do.

Our mind plays tricks on us when we’re forced to be alone with it. Illusions have a way of creeping in and unsettling us. Chaucer wrote, “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.”

The virus is not a partisan virus.  It kills equally. It creates fear, panic and uncertainty. We know that now.  We’ve seen the path of destruction it has created around the world.  It has opened us up to the challenge of mortality, but it’s also opened the possibility for more.  We see life anew.  There are perspectives forming.  We see life for what it is.  We visit our inner sanctuaries of understanding and reflect deeper on life in profound ways.

We see what’s important to us in family and the care and concern of loved ones. We see the values of freedoms we’ve too often taken for granted. We see the selfless power of compassion and altruism in doctors, nurses and first responders. We’ve seen the promises kept to heal – not only the body, but the mind and spirit.

I’m not writing about the dread of tomorrow.  We need some hopeful words today. It’s been a long time since we’ve heard words of encouragement. I’m encouraged to hear hopeful words from a former president.

President George W. Bush said, “We are not partisan combatants.”  He went on to say, “We’re human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together. And we’re determined to rise.”

I’m seeing the beauty of words reflected in those who have faced the unknown in the challenging times and conquered.

Beauty opens our dreams to further possibility.  These are the quotes that stand the test of time:

“Let us face the angels of our better nature… With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Abraham Lincoln

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Robert Kennedy

We are waging a war with a silent killer.  The only way to combat it is to fight with the blessings of healing talents — the intrepid magic of science and ingenuity of learned people who serve as spiritual vessels of faith, hope and love.

During this season of renewal, this spring, what is the hope that springs forth in you? What is God calling through your adversity?  Where is the faith and poetry in your heart?”