Stubborn Optimism

If today is not great,

tomorrow will be better;

If tomorrow is just sad

Next week will be looking up,

If next week is bleak,

Next month the sun will shine

If next month is gloomy

Maybe wait till next year

I mused over these words recently after they just fell into my head. Resilience is a great quality to possess, so is tenacity. To really be consistently positive, optimism must be stubbornly clung to. Some may say that the train of thought above is a little naive. I can understand this line of thought but without hope the things life throws at us could easily sink our emotional ships, blissfully sailing in carefree seas. I wrote a blog post about Job a few months ago and while looking at the topic of hope in a bible search I realized that Job, who had a very bleak experience in life, spoke so much about hope. Hmm,....way to hold on Job! He said, "At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail." (Job 14:17) In the face of great challenges, Job speaks about a hope that rises when it is cut down. Now that is stubborn optimism.
On the other hand, there are certainly times when roadblocks should make us reassess our paths to make sure we are going down the right road. Sometimes doors are shut because they were never meant to be opened in the first place. Other times "doors" just need us to keep on knocking and we need the wisdom to know the difference. When given the choice to hold onto hope or give it up, I hope you chose to hold onto hope.

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