This quote came in my email this morning:
I looked at those words a long time, and then I played around to make an image while I thought about them.
I do often have great hopes. Hey, I got out of bed this morning, and only on hope. We can mix in a lot of duty, but hope in seeing a beautiful morning and for a good cup of tea got me up.
But do I entertain hopes?
Went to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary site to get clear on the word entertain. I learned that a basic meaning of the word entertain is to maintain. (Well, well, that gives an enlightenment.) Another to show hospitality. Being a southern woman, I am well acquainted with the term hospitality.
It is true. I’m usually not hospitable to hope. I certainly don’t maintain it on any sort of regular basis. My attitude toward hope is more or less: “Oh, so glad to see you. Let me give you a big hug. I don’t know, though…I’m sorry, I just can’t quite believe you. Yes, I know you are lying, that is it, just don’t fool me, and I’m too busy for this stuff anyway.” So I drop hope like a hot potato, and then have to scramble around to find it again, but being distrustful, I am rude to it, dismissive, critical, and off hope flies again.
Robert Frost’s quote gives the idea that one can welcome hope in and feed it and enjoy it, and that to do so is a choice. Always. See that word always? And the word great. He didn’t mess around.
Robert Frost saw publication of over thirty-two volumes of his poetry, and he also wrote plays, and taught at Amherst. That is just a little bit of what he did. To do all of that, he must have had a lot of hopes, certainly great hopes. I believe entertaining hopes must have been his nature.
Think I’ll enjoy entertaining great hopes today. And tomorrow, and the day after that, until it is a more steady habit. Already just writing about it, I feel I’ve been greatly entertaining it. I am curious now to see what happens in my life.
Enjoy your day of entertaining hope.
Blessings,
CurtissAnn
Curtiss Ann Matlock 
A FB friend just posted this meme: ‘The key to happiness is low expectations. Lower. Nope even lower. There you go.” Which reminded me of my mother always saying, “Don’t expect anything, then you won’t be disappointed.” And my dad saying, “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” And my own skepticism about almost everything these days. Yet somehow, there must be hope bubbling around somewhere beneath all of that. I bet if I could completely uncover it, there’d be a geyser of hope!
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We are sisters of different mothers. 🙂 There is also, “Shoot for the moon and you may land upon the stars.” I want to start more shooting for the moon.
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Like you, I am cautious around Hope. Faith is something else altogether. Would rather direct my energy and prayers that way. It always leaves me feeling grounded.
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Reminds me of the scripture: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13:13 Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts. It is delightful!
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