Inspiration: 

For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.
–Anne Morrow Lindbergh 

A Life Jacket of Hope

For me, hope was my life jacket as I floated in a vast sea of depression.  It is a miserable experience to float in a vast sea of depression, all on your own, no land in sight, sharks of despair circling nearby.

…Sometimes, the life jacket that holds you up seems more of a curse than a blessing.  Only once you have found your way to land are you sure that your life jacket had a purpose.  Thankfully, my life jacket, my hope, served a purpose.  My hope for a healthy future filled with love and meaning has become my reality through hard work, tenacity, and the grace of God.  For that I am profoundly grateful.

Gratitude, I believe, is hope that has evolved.  As soon as I left the ocean, I dropped my life jacket on the beach.  I no longer needed it the way I had.  But what surrounds me now and helps me navigate the earth is gratitude.  Not a day goes by that I am not thankful for my life and thankful that hope kept me afloat.

by Adam Gerhardstein  TO READ MORE

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The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Without Walls.