Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.

Emily Dickinson

 I love that poem. That sentiment. For me hope and happiness are interchangeable.

Although...I mean hope in the sense of optimism, not some sort of craven desperation. In my role as an editor for marketing copy, I ALWAYS change text like 'We hope to be able to...' 'Hopefully, this product will...'

NO! DON'T SAY THAT! It sounds so lame and weak. Be proud of yourselves! Be confident!

And now, in one of Caroline Coxon's strange synaptical leaps - maybe not so strange - here's a song to cheer you up on a damp and drizzly Friday morning (well, it is here!) should you need it.

Ooops there goes another rubber tree plant!

Listen to the mustn'ts.

Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me...
Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.

What a wonderful, wonderful poem, by Shel Silverstein

Wonderful image, too, and I've tried to find the artist, without success.

I love what I do! I'm lost for inspiration for my blog so I think of a theme - and today's was hope - and I look for quotes and discover unexpected magic...

I was thinking about hope because I'm in that sort of phase with my creative work, with so much material out there and me waiting to hear back about it.

The novel, film scripts, animation scripts...

It's a great place to be.

I'm blessed.

What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life

 My lungs are screaming at me this morning. Begging for mercy.






I blame Alfie. And the biting chill in the air. And the fact that I'm SO determined that Alfie should move forward during our lesson in the sand-school even when all he really, really wants to do is stand in the middle in a semi-coma, watching everyone else.

So - I over-exert myself. It might be less effort to give Alfie a piggy-back.

I've developed a peculiar high-pitched whooping sound to psych him up. That and the flinging my shoulders left-right, left-right in an energetic fashion to set him in motion. It's not pretty...but it works. (Tessa's comment was that if she ever felt the desire to promote her skills as a riding teacher, she wouldn't be choosing Friday mornings for her demonstration...)

Oh - the quote about oxygen and hope belongs to Emil Brunner, 20th century Swiss theologian.

I expect he had a horse like Alfie.

I must say that if I made half as much effort with hope as I do with oxygen, I'd be positively galloping round the sand-school of life.