(noun) A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen; grounds for believing something good will happen. Oxford American Dictionaries (a widget provided on our Macintosh computer)
From everything I learned in catechism, there are three virtues—faith, hope and love. They say that love is the greatest. I beg to differ.
Hope gets me out of bed when the alarm rings. Hope propels me beyond the mundane today to the excitement of tomorrow. Hope is the preamble to the event; the anticipation of the unknown. Maybe this time…this is our year…
Signs of spring stir my sense of renewal: baby animals; orange construction barrels; opening of baseball training camps; the first signs of snowdrops, crocus, daffodils; the first golf tournaments; convertibles with the top down and the thumping bass of the radio; kids learning to ride new bikes.
Summer brings the promise of unbridled fun, warmth and freedom: fireworks, picnics, parades, spontaneous walks in the park, the beach, a hole-in-one, freedom from the layers of clothing and dismal gray days.
Fall brings a renewed focus and heightened activity after the "lazy, hazy crazy days of summer": rich, deep colors; a new school year; the boys of summer yielding to the pageantry and rapid pace of the games of the fall; the holidays running into one another, building up anticipation for good food, good friends and good cheer.
Winter provides warm, cozy nights; a white Christmas (for those in the right climate and hemisphere); a new year and the quintessential promises of personal improvement known as the new year’s resolutions.
Without hope, there is no faith and no charity. Without hope there is sadness and darkness. Without hope there is listlessness and helplessness. Hope is the foundation—it’s what provides the energy and strength to believe and to love.