Life as Amusement Park

I am by nature a hopeful woman.

When leading Morning Prayer, I almost always close with this:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hope for me springs eternal.

When looking up the source of this, I discovered that it was Alexander Pope who wrote this. The rest of the sonnet is written below.


Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733

Alexander Pope was also a translator of Homer's Odyssey. Discovering this comforts me at a time I need comforting.

Jim is watching out for me. From where, I do not know.

Jim was a non-believer, having been raised a Roman Catholic, and a fellow translator of Homer.

Jim struggled with his own shadows, but he loved K.

My hope was fading today, being replaced with disappointment.

In-actions replacing actions.

Promises made, not kept.

Plans made, not carried out.

Life is always full of disappointments, but sometimes the timing is different. Like a roller coaster or a merry go round.

Up and down, round and around, again and again.

A while ago I thought that my ride had changed. Like the teacups at Disney World.

Lots of laughter, but really going slowly.

How do you balance support for another individual, hoping for a better place for them, with the reality that it might never coming true?

How, as a parent do you come to grips with wanting the best and the realization that the best might never come?

Love does not always make a difference.