Hope is a funny thing. You expect it to be filling every molecule of light, or hiding somewhere in the shadows. We expect hope to be one of two things: present, or simply missing. The past few weeks have taught me this:
Hope can become stranded just as we are. Hope can wait around the corners for us, just as our vices do, and all they need is an invitation to become a daily component of our lives.
We are all born with love in our bones, although naturally, the world presents us with harsh and unforgiving lessons that seem to take and take from us. Although most of us learn to survive and simply get by these experiences, it takes an ounce of faith to evolve our spirits from them. And though leaving behind what was once our security blankets can make nights long and sometimes unbearable, in the end it will grant us back the love we have been given from the day we were born.
We are told from a young age that there are people who give, and that there are people who take. What they didn’t tell us, is that we are both of these people. We make mistakes, hurt each other terribly, and sometimes block out the light that others are guided by. It would be unnatural to live in a place where our blunders do not affect another ones progress. It’s just the way events are aligned in this universe.
Hope walks hand in hand with forgiveness. Guilt is ball and chain, and we must free ourselves before we can hold our hand out to support others. Being a human isn’t flawless, but with forgiveness we find ourselves just that much brighter.

Although shadows tend to grow, and the things we hold dearest become marred, there is nothing stopping us from allowing love into our life, and growing to become the beautiful, strong, imperfect humans that we are supposed to be.