Finding Hope
Kelly’s English teacher asked her to stay after class to talk about a writing project.
”You have a gift, Kelly…your writing is that of an old soul and I’ve been touched by everything you have written.
Your insights on life are profound and you are a true wordsmith. Have you ever considered writing a book that could inspire young adults to reach for the very best in life…to help them over the inevitable hurdles that will stand before them?
I know you have to run to your next class but please let me know if this thought created a spark within you.”
Kelly returned the following week and was beaming.
“Mrs. Richards, as you can probably tell, your idea was just what the doctor ordered. Can we find 30 minutes next week as I’ve got a plan to share with you and I’m nearly finished with The Table of Contents?
She handed her mentor an envelope with the encouragement to open later at home.
Before retiring for the evening, she put on her reading glasses and opened the envelope.
Inside was a poem entitled ‘Hope’.
Walking on yet another road to nowhere
i happened upon a stone
It was surrounded by fallen and wrinkled oak leaves
Whose best days were long gone
Picking up the stone, I wondered
’Could this be a sign I was meant to find,
Perhaps someone saw me walking this lonely road yesterday
Carrying this overstuffed backpack while nursing a broken bicycle
That was, shall I say, a wreck
Running my fingers over the smooth letters on the stone,
HOPE was not a word in that day’s vocabulary
Truth be told, it had been retired years ago when
the world seemed to gang up on me and send this weary nomad to the curb
Fast forward twenty four months after that ‘chance’ encounter with hope
And the word is the centerpiece of my life
My book of Hope will be published before Christmas
and it’s a word now alive in my heart as I try to bring it
to those traveling aimless roads that had trapped me for so long
In the book, I encourage strugglers to stay open to life and to possibilities…
to start a Hope Journal with the thought that they alone write the story of their own life…
that they alone compose every paragraph, page, and chapter of their book and that
the swan song is not to be sung while hope remains within.
What You’re Saying