Hope, Not Just for Someday But For This Day

Photo by Ben White.

Blessing of Hope

by Jan Richardson

So my we know

the hope

that is not just

for someday

but for this day--

here, now,

in this moment

that opens to us:

hope not made

of wishes

but of substance

hope made of sinew

and muscle

and bone,

hope that has breath

and a beating heart,

hope that will not

keep quiet

and be polite

hope that knows

how to holler

when it is called for,

hope that knows

how to sing

when there seems

little cause

hope that raises us 

from the dead--

not someday

but this day,

every day,

again and

again and

again.

The first time I read this, I was caught by the final stanza: "not someday / but this day" pierced right through to my heart.

This time, I was grabbed by "hope that will not / keep quiet / and be polite", which I incidentally mistyped as "be police" the first time. A telling mistake of where I think politeness may be failing us.

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