Hope
Hope assures us, whether our life far exceeds our wildest dreams or crushes it all… nothing is wasted, every heartbeat, breath, laugh, tear, and sigh everything contains meaning and purpose that resonates in eternity. Hope waits and endures. It isn’t flimsy or merely wishful thinking. It can withstand fire, trials, and despair.
“Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper”
“While there’s life, there’s hope”
Cicero, Letters to Atticus
“Hope is the poor man’s bread”
George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum
“What is hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of”
Lord Byron
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”
Dante, Divine Comedy
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.”
John Lennon
“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts On Common Things
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.
Langston Hughes
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
“But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’…
Alfred Lord Tennyson
“Life is such unutterable hell, solely because it is sometimes beautiful. If we could only be miserable all the time, if there could be no such things as love or beauty or faith or hope, if I could be absolutely certain that my love would never be returned: how much more simple life would be. One could plod through the Siberian salt mines of existence without being bothered about happiness. Unfortunately the happiness is there. There is always the chance (about eight hundred and fifty to one) that another heart will come to mine. I can’t help hoping, and keeping faith, and loving beauty. Quite frequently I am not so miserable as it would be wise to be.”
T.H. White, Ghostly, Grim and Gruesome
Spoken word
Emily Dickinson: ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers (read by Juliet Stevenson)
Music
Gorillaz: Cloud of Unknowing
Lana Del Rey: Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For Woman Like Me – But I Have It
Florence + The Machine: Big God
SBTRKT (feat. Denai Moore): The Light
Moby: We Are All Made Of Stars
Bonobo (feat. Erykah Badu): Heaven For The Sinner
Bethlehem Progressive Ensemble: Call To Worship (Make Straight)
Zero 7: Futures
BADBADNOTGOOD: Chompy’s Paradise
Darkstar: Hold Me Down
The Cinematic Orchestra: To Believe
Narrative
On the cloud of unknowing – My world seems open – Every satellite up here is watching – But I was here from the very start – Trying to find a way to your heart
All the days are forgetting – They’ve gone out with the tide – Lost at sea somewhere, waiting – Like setting suns at the rodeo
Trying to find someone you’ll never know – sinking love – Waiting to see what the morning brings – May bring sunshine on its wings
[Gorillaz]
Writing in blood on the walls – Because the ink in my pen don’t work in my notepad – Don’t ask if I’m happy, you know that I’m not – But, at best, I can say I’m not sad
Because hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman with my past
There’s a new revolution, a loud evolution that I saw – Born of confusion and quiet collusion of which mostly I’ve known
A modern day woman with a weak constitution, because I’ve got – Monsters still under my bed that I could never fight off
Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – But I have it
[Lan Del Rey]
You need a big god – Big enough to hold your love – You need a big god – Big enough to fill you up
You keep me up at night – To my messages, you do not reply – You know I still like you the most – The best of the best and the worst of the worst
I still like you the most – You’ll always be my favorite ghost – Sometimes I think it’s getting better – And then it gets much worse
Is it just part of the process? – Jesus Christ, it hurts – Though I know I should know better – I can make this work
Shower your affection, let it rain on me – And pull down the mountain, drag your cities to the sea – Don’t leave me on this white cliff – Let it slide down to the sea
[Florence + The Machine]
Skin burn, my eyes hurt – And I always leave my curtains wide open – But the light never stays
Tell me, am I the only one? – Getting lonelier and losing love in my heart
The wind fills all the places no one goes – I feel a timer under my feet – And I can’t control the way my heart beats
[SBTRKT]
Growing in numbers – Growing in speed – I can’t fight the future – Can’t fight what I see – Because people they come together – people they fall apart
No one can stop us now – Because we are all made of stars – Efforts of lovers – Left in my mind – We’ll see what we find
Slowly rebuilding – I feel it in me – Growing in numbers – Growing in peace
[Moby]
We don’t need no truth, got planted now – It grows on trees – I don’t let it… or 8 side loose
There’s no saint and there’s no sinner – Done more dirt than these – I know that we can do more right that these – I need to find a paradise for me
We just ask about – God is ready, but you don’t want to – No one tell me, heaven’s waiting – For the sinner, – It’s steady waiting – World keeps turning – Shine on light
Shine all time – Heaven’s waiting, for the sinners – It’s steady waiting
[Bonobo]
Every night at midnight and a new episode is aired every Friday midnight on Wirral Wave radio or AirTime. Later on SoundCloud for some time.
Suggestions, opinions and comments welcomed at veronika(at)wirralwave(dot)co(dot)uk.
Through the Bohemian Looking Glass 