Grief and Hope

Many times I wonder why we go through grief as men. Wouldn't it be far much better to just have joy and don't know what grief is, not experience the sadness and heartache that comes with grief and not have to live with the gloom grief brings.

But then I have also come to realise that without the grief we won't appreciate and be grateful for the good we have. If we don't see the grief evident we won't celebrate the good like we do.

The fact that we know death exists makes us appreciate life. The fact that we what poverty feels like makes us want to make wealth. The fact that we understand what sicknesses and diseases feel like makes us appreciate good health.

It's these grievances that makes us appreciate the good things of life. So grief really does make us appreciate what we have.

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all." -- Emily Dickinson

I have said it a couple of times unashamedly that hope is man's greatest weapon, it's the greatest weapons in Man's arsenal given to him by the Maker. Once we lose hope we are indeed done for, once we become hopeless we have indeed come to the end of the line and you might as well commit suicide and end it all (I'm sorry if that sounded crass and raw)

But hope truly is what keeps us going even in the toughest of time, even when faced with the strongest of foes or while going through the greatest of tribulations. It is the hope that even if the chance is so slight we can still win, it is the hope that one day the dark night will be over and our sun will shine again that keeps us going.

It is that belief that if the ones before us could do it then there is a chance albeit slight that we can also do it too. That hope my friends must be guarded at all costs, for when you lose it you have lost it all. That hope must be guarded and it's fire must never burn out, for when it is set on a hill it brightens our path.

That hope will show you ways you didn't know existed and it will point you in the direction you need to go. But that will only be possible if you don't let it's fire die, and if you don't succumb. May your hope never die my friends and may the embers of its fire continue to burn brightly in you.