Hope changes everything

For reasons that we’ll ignore for the moment, I bought a replacement cell phone yesterday. I guess I wanted to do something to take the edge off of feeling good. More than 90 minutes after arriving at my local store, I walked out with a spanking brand-new piece of 21st-century technology. The people could not have been any nicer, they were also very skilled, transferring all my apps and data. Now, what used to take 20 seconds to load only takes 2 seconds. I walked out a very happy customer.

But then it started.

The buttons on the side of the phone, that I had become so familiar with over the years, were different. The fingerprint recognition sensor was moved. I had the dickens of a time finding the Settings app. But the most distressing impact was that I had to re-enter my log-in ID and Password for my Dunkin Donuts mobile app, causing me to have to stand in line for my morning coffee.

There were a lot of other things that I had to do, to learn. To relearn. And all because of what? I made one decision. Changing phones creates a lot of opportunities to re-learn, to change. For gain or for pain.

Choosing to hope also opens up a lot of opportunities to change. After choosing to hope, you will be able to react and respond differently. Will you immediately reply negatively to every irritation, or with a new openness, new possibilities, new energy?

The easy response is to continue down the old, well-worn patterns, knee-jerk reactions of negativity, despair.

Hope opens up new vistas of opportunity and optimism. But it takes choosing to hope each and every day, each and every moment.

The choice is yours.