“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…” 
– Alfred Lord Tennyson

Will it be happier?

Let's make it so.

But why wait for happier
 

Hope smiles now,
and always, 
not only on balmy days

when all goes well. 

Hope smiles from slits in clouds

on the dreariest of days, 
and from those thin streams of light,

that funnel through as rays. 

Hope smiles from starlight, moonlight, 
and diamond lights on icy snow,

from candle lights, nightlights, 
and from twilight's golden glow.  

Let's keep our heads up
and our faces forward.
Trusting in the goodness of life,
let's be open to life, and smile, often,
today and every day.  

With love and hope,
Charlene

If you would like to read about hope through the coming holidays and holy days, there's more...
 

Hope smiles from 
all the holidays and holy days,
and from and through all 
the ups and downs,
and joy and sorrows
of this emotional season.

Through every day

in this short but too long 
and long but too short ,
sacred and secular.

culturally diverse,

emotional season
of burdens and blessings,
Hope smiles. 

Today, and every day,
Hope smiles 
from and through 
eyes that love and care.

Today, and every day,
Hope holds a light,

a promise, 

and a steady place 
in hearts 
that seem to have misplaced 
their inner smile 

and forgotten how to care,
and maybe how to love. 
 

But hope is forever there

in their hearts

and ours,

with love,

with light,

and with smiles,
ready to re-awaken

the best of all that's in us.

Yes, hope is smiling 

from the year ahead
and it's  smiling now,

in your heart and mine.

THE FIFTH GIFT IS HOPE.  
Through each passage and season
may you trust the goodness of life. 
– from The Twelve Gifts of Birth