The cyclonic nature of the Trump presidency seems to create turmoil and angst whenever and wherever it touches down. There is frustration and near-hopelessness that is spreading across America because there is a sense that the administration of Donald J. Trump is a national nightmare from which we cannot awake, no matter  how hard we try.

If there was ever a time for Faith and Hope, now is that time. And so, the rest of this column will be a Trump-free zone (at least for this week) and I am going to share two excerpts on Faith and Hope from my soon to be published book entitled “Today and Tomorrow”.

FAITH

It is said that faith is having belief in something without having a complete and full and rational basis for doing so, without having a full and complete set of reasons. But faith may just be more than that. After all, if you are to go forward in life, you have to, you must, believe in yourself. First and foremost you must care about yourself. Not selfishly. Not without caring about others. You cannot really believe in others, uplift them with your spirit, if you do not believe in yourself.

It is difficult, if not impossible to understand, how one can have faith in their partner, their children, their God, their friendships, their love, unless they have faith in themselves. Faith in oneself is the beginning of a validation process that can culminate in faith, or belief, in any of these other matters.

If you have faith in yourself, then you can believe in others and rely upon their faith and belief in you. If you don’t believe in yourself, if you think of yourself as somehow being unworthy, then there is simply no way that you can think of your belief in your God as being meaningful, there is no way that you can think that your faith in the love of your friends or spouse or child can be real…..it can’t be real if you are not worthy in your own eyes.

Face it; there will always be someone who will be only too glad to tell you of your failings, speak to you of your shortcomings – what you cannot be. There will always be someone who will tell you what you cannot achieve. So there is no point contributing to the negative messages that all of us receive from time to time.

There are times, however, when the only positive voice that you hear may be your own. It is then that you have to sustain yourself and your aspirations and your energy and your direction so that you can accomplish what you set out to do, so that you can get to where you want to go, so that you can be who you are supposed to be.

But it all begins with your faith in you. It begins with you believing because you want to believe, even when other people tell you that you have no reason to do so. Believe in yourself even when so-called common sense tells you that you should not. Believe in yourself, because once you do, you empower yourself in a way that nothing else, and no one else has the power to do.

You have to believe that you are worthy of good things happening to you. You have to believe that you deserve a positive outcome to your every day. You have to believe that you are entitled to expect, and receive the best. Again, if you don’t believe in yourself, who else can be expected to believe in you? Who else can be expected to share your vision, your dreams, whatever they might be?

And, once you begin to truly believe in yourself, once you can visualize outrageous good fortune and bewildering success. You can begin to amaze yourself. And, as you amaze yourself, you will begin to expect good fortune, you will await success with the same sense of expectation that you wait for the bus or the subway. You KNOW that it is going to come.  And, isn’t that what faith is all about?

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HOPE

Hope is the wellspring from which flows the strength and energy to keep believing in today and tomorrow. And believing in tomorrow is so very important because hope for the future is the foundation upon which we build our today.

Hope is interesting, because it doesn’t have to have a rational basis to be of value and to be a source of strength. All that hope requires in order to exist is for someone to believe. To be able to share that hope is even more wonderful, of course, but in the end, if only one person holds that hope near and carries it forward like a flickering torch in the rainy nighttime of non-belief, then that can be enough.

Hoping for happiness, a better day, sunshine for the wedding or picnic-hope is a wonderful aspect of our existence. That is why the absence of hope is the subject of such profound sorrow and a condition to be avoided at all costs. The word “hopeless” is indeed a very sad word.

Of course, hope without action is like prayer without belief. Hope must be accompanied by some effort to make that hope a reality. Otherwise it is just idle musings, daydreams by the babbling brook of existence. Hope has to be nurtured and reinforced by action; it has to be supported by the energy that is unique to each of us. It makes the pleasure of seeing that hope turn into reality all the more wonderful, all the more delicious.

No fruit tastes better than the one picked from the tree which you planted and cared for yourself. That is a truth that is eternal and should always be believed.

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