Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane, the pessimist the parachute.
George Bernard Shaw
When hope smiles
When hope smiles,
“Possible” is not a winsome regret,
It’s an opportunity,
That opens with a new day,
With the sunrise smiling back at me.
When hope smiles,
“Work” is not a drudgery,
It’s creativity,
Born from a Creator,
Well done his voice says to me.
(Chris Gribble)
I wrote this poem when considering the importance of hope in my own life. Two key thoughts for me centred around the words possibility and creativity. Both of these emerge from the idea that “work” is an intrinsically good thing.
Despair is the antithesis to hope. Despair also is the voice of regret and drudgery. Hope makes possibilities possible and reimagines work as a creative expression of who we are. When we lose our way in our work then it can become life draining instead of life giving.
Hope is an important ingredient in making ideas work. Professor Martin Seligam is considered an authority on optimism – In his findings he describes some of the differences between optimists and pessimists.
For example he writes about the differences in how the two mindsets view setbacks. The pessimist globalises the setback while the optimist limits it to the one event.Then in the case when something goes right the pessimist will say that it’s a once off event while the optimists believes that it will continue.
The resilient person views a setback as something that can be changed in the future.
Creative, possibilities – Well done. This is the voice of hope.
“When hope smiles…”, possibility emerges.