"What gives you hope?"
It has been really interesting trying to answer that question in a way that is honest to myself as well as to the viewer. What gives me hope? Who gives me hope?
For ten years now, my grandparents have treated our entire family (15+) on vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where we would spend a week together in an Oceanfront House. I remember the first year being overwhelmed at the sight of the ocean. I had never seen something go so wide and so far. As years progressed, our entire family has grown closer and the relationships developed into something that probably wouldn’t have been if it weren’t for our yearly vacations.
I sit here writing this response the day after returning home from the Outer Banks. I feel exhausted—drained, rather. This year’s trip was set in stone seven months ago. It became the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for many things.
It’s in watching my family interact.
It’s in the grains of sand that cover miles of beach
In the wave’s persistence
In the steady sun
And In the violent storms that roll in at night
It gives me hope that there is something greater. Something beyond what the world teaches me to expect. When I ask myself “what gives me hope”, it is unity. When I ask myself “Who gives me hope?”, it is everyone.
When I ask myself “Who has given me hope”— it is God, his Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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The Polaroids were taped along the road trip back home, ironically, providing visual reminders of what gives me hope.
