“Hope” is the Thing with Feathers
“Hope” is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
In this beautiful metaphor, Emily Dickens likens hope to a feathered bird that is permanently perched in the soul of every human. There it sings, never stopping in its quest to inspire.
Hope, for Dickinson, sings its wordless tune and never stops singing it: nothing can faze it. Hope does not communicate by ‘speaking’ to us in a conventional sense: it is a feeling that we get, not always a rational one, that cheers us even in dark times of despair. Indeed, hope is sweetest of all when the ‘Gale’ is busy raging: during turbulent or troubled times, hope is there for us. And hope can withstand just about anything: even in the times we are in the coldest places (‘the chillest land’) or in foreign or scary times in life (‘on the strangest Sea’), hope remains. And hope never asks for anything from us in return. It provides comfort and solace but does not require anything back.
Becoming the Greatest Expression
Becoming the Greatest Expression of You is a series of posts that I began on March 20, 2016. One day I hope to turn them into a book.
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Your Hypnosis Health Info Hypnotic Suggestion for today:
I radiate hope.
Expectation and desire
Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, or an optimistic attitude of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large. Hope is a projection of “having” something in the future.
Hope is the opposite of fear, which is the projection of not “having,” or potential of expected loss.
Hoping for the best is not enough to get better, and it doesn’t necessarily result in actually getting better. It’s just something you would like to happen, which actually may or may not happen.
Hope is not abandonment of personal responsibility. For some people, the term hope simply means I want this to happen, but it is not necessarily tied to my actions or my reality. I want it, but I don’t want to do what’s necessary to achieve it, so I’ll just hope for it. That is wishful thinking or magical thinking or even delusion. It can help us feel good, but the fact that you feel good doesn’t necessarily mean that things are okay. Unrealistic hope is a passive wish which may cause despair. It may be fantasy and carries with it negative feelings.
Realistic hope
Realistic hope is based on achievable, realistic expectations. Realistic hope is much more of an active analytical process. It involves an assessment of the future, perseverance, expectancy and an appraisal of all the various possibilities and their consequences which can promote the realization of the hope and its expectancy. It is an important ingredient of living and of a fulfilled life.
There is no such thing as false hope and in practice “False hope” is when the person talks the “Hope-talk” but doesn’t really believe it and actually feels hopeless. Their unrecognized inner-conflict can produce the reverse effect.
Since January 2, 1997
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