To Hope or to Not Hope....

That is the question.

This is a story I heard when I was perhaps 6 or 7 years old. The essence of the story is something I have not been able to forget. This story passed down from a Nepali person to another Nepali person, is paraphrased into my own words.

There once was a boy we lived with his father in the woods. Food was scarce, and shelter was difficult. They would constantly move around looking for food.

One day, when it got really cold, the father decided to leave the son in one safe spot and look for food alone.

He told his son, "Son, I will go look for food and come back. It's cold, so you stay right here and wait for me. Can you do that for me?"

The boy nodded with eyes full of trust.

The father once again reminded the son. "Don't go anywhere else. Just stay here where it's safe and I will come for you as soon as I can."

The boy agreed and stayed there, covered in the leaves of the forest, doing his best to stay warm.

The day turned into night, and night into day once again. The father did not come.

But the boy continued to wait, waiting on his father, believing he would come back.

He pictured good food that his father would bring. His father's smiling face. A warm hug. And mostly, he repeated the promise he made to his father- a promise to wait.

More days and nights past.

The boy got thinner and thinner. He was hungry and oh-so-cold. Still, he held on to the hope of his father coming back.

Hope of food. Hope of shelter. Hope of warmth.

Then, a serpent who had observed the boy for days, came by, and asked him why he was still there.

The boy said he was waiting for his father to come back.

The serpent laughed and said, "if your father was going to come back, he would have done so. He has been gone for this long, so he is most likely not coming back. He has either run off or got eaten by some wild animals."

The boy said, "No, he will come back. He promised me he would."

The serpent challenged, "Lets see if he comes back then," and left.

The boy's mind began to fill with doubts. Could the serpent be right? He had been waiting for a long time, and his father was still not back.

Before his conversation with the serpent, he was so sure of his father coming back. He was holding on to the hope and now the hope began to die.

Soon, the doubts, fears began to creep in.

The boy then gave up the hope of his father coming back.

And shortly after that, he died.

....

As my grandfather used to say to me when I was a child: what is the morale of this story?

Hope is what keeps us going even when things are looking bleak, dark and gloomy. Sometimes it is not even about the outcome of how things will turn out to be, it is simply about having the will to keep on going, to survive, to live longer. Hope is filled with belief, positive thoughts and sometimes even this inner knowing.

Without hope, what are we left with?

When hope is shattered, sometimes even our will to live is shattered with it.

While we are living this human experience, we encounter days that are so dark, and it becomes hard to continue to hope, to persevere, to keep on going, to believe and to know that better days are coming.

Ironically, that which is so hard to find, is exactly what we need to keep on going.

The challenge in your life is then to keep on going, find the will, have the courage it takes to overcome the hurdle.... and hope.

Reflective Questions

What keeps you going when it feels like your world is falling apart?

What do you hope for?

What is your life like with and without hope?

Remember a time when you had either given up or felt so close to losing hope, how did you bounce back?

Who is the most hopeful person you know?