Hope

That the world is an unwieldy and sometimes frightening place is not in doubt. It has always been this way, as any cursory glance at myth, legend and history will tell you.

The trouble is that clenching yourself up, whether as a fist to smash or a stone to hide, is never the answer. You cannot control your way through life, for it happens anyway; it is the clear blue sky from which the plane fell, as Joan Didion has written.

The disasters you think you are preparing for never happen, and nothing could have prepared you for the ones that did.

And yet you coped. And yet you lived on. Loved on.

The result of that difficulty and pain is the wisdom and compassion you now have, which is a gift to everyone you meet.

The answer to the question of what to do in the face of a difficult world is to stay open and hopeful.

Hope is optimism and the belief that good things will come again, but hope also means trust. Trust that you are strong enough to thrive here; trust in your little life, which is so important to so many; trust in doing the simple things that restore you to yourself and inspire you.