It is early Thanksgiving morning and I have been struggling all week with what to write for an article.

It seems like a no-brainer – I should be writing about giving thanks right? But every editor here at BellaOnline is doing that in some form or another and every editor around the internet is focusing on that. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot to be thankful for – I just figure that you guys need to hear something else from me.

I keep coming back to this one word; hope.

One of our editors made an interesting statement in the forums the other day. Her husband was in a terrible accident and has been in the hospital for several months now. She said she is learning to “tolerate hope”.

Hope can be a tricky thing at times. Without it we would all curl up into little balls and die, with no reason to go on with life. Yet sometimes it seems like we get our hopes up too high only to have them crash down around our ears. There are some people out there who have given up on hope completely and trudge through the day with their head down just waiting for their life to end. You may know a person like this. They go beyond pessimism, because a pessimist at least calls for emotion of some sort. People who have given up on hope are just…grey.

Some of my new readers may not know this, but I suffer from (and deal with) Depression and Bipolar disorder. At one point in my life I felt like I was living in the bottom of a deep black pit. This is even how my husband and I describe my worst depressive days; my “bile black days”. I literally cannot get out of the bed and often have a pillow pulled over my head to block out any light or noise. I cannot handle the outside world. I imagine myself in a deep, dark, well with a cover over it.

But, as I started getting treatment for my disorders, I noticed there was just a pinpoint of light peeking through. That, my dear friends, was hope. It was like someone moved the cover off the well just a little bit and a tiny ray shined down on me. I had to look up to see it, though. If I had continued with my head buried and looking down – I would never have noticed that small pinpoint.

Also, it was just a pinpoint. As my friend said, I had to learn to “tolerate hope”. I had to learn to trust in hope again. If the well cover had just been flung off and the sun had shown down in its full force on me all at once, I would have been blinded and lived in darkness again. I had to allow hope to enter my heart little by little, piece by piece.

Hope is like physical therapy for the soul, you have to build it up slowly if you have been bereft of it in your life. You also have to keep it in your life constantly. Look for ways to be hopeful. Seek out the light instead of hiding your head.

Always remember the myth of Pandora’s box. Thousands upon thousands of woes were released upon the world when Pandora opened the box she should not have, yet there was only one “cure” for all these woes left in the box at the end. That was Hope.

I leave you with some words on hope that I have found very inspiring.

• 'Hope' is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - And sings the tune without words And never stops - at all. - Emily Dickinson



• Without hope men are only half alive. With hope they dream and think and work. - Charles Sawyer



• They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world. Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. - Tom Bodett



• Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air ... but only for one second without hope. - Hal Lindsey



• I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -- myth is more potent than history -- dreams are more powerful than facts -- hope always triumphs over experience -- laughter is the cure for grief -- love is stronger than death. -Robert Fulghum

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!