Thought:
I have noticed an increase of financial woes among the neighbors on my street. Those who have worked most of their lives are no longer working, and this is adding stress among their family members. When a person has trials of their own that keep piling up, it is difficult to want to get up every day and still try to find that ray of hope that we will get through another day. And when you see the surmounting problems within your own neighborhood, it makes finding that ray of hope seem impossible. Everyone is going through some kind of rough time... then adding to this the world conditions with all its hunger and illnesses and that ray of hope seems to shine less and less.

Who of us have not at one point in our lives thought about giving up because of being void of joy? When you are hit with more than one major problem at a time, it leaves one doubting that things will get better for them... for their neighbors.

I won't deny that it is not difficult out there because it is. When we look back at the history of mankind since the very beginning there is proof that even when things tended to get out of hand... there was a glimmer of hope and open doors of opportunity for bad times to turn themselves around. What if some of these people from way back then had decided they did not want to try anymore... that they wanted to give up? Where would we be? Would we even be here?

Times like these make you even more determined to keep trying to find that ray of hope that if we were to work together for the benefit of all in our families, neighborhoods, nations that even when our days don't go as planned, even if we were to get depressed and our stresses get out of hand, somehow we need to trust that the same light of hope that got people through the hard times before will get us through our today.

What about you? When you don't feel worthy to accept any ray of hope that comes your way, what helps you to turn your negative outlook around and become positive again so that you will not give up but keep trying? Share your thoughts with us...

Poem:

When the day doesn't go as planned...
When depression and stress demand...
When one does not see the light of any hope there may be
It can block out any hope of feeling worthy.

When one doesn't want to fight to keep trying,
When one is not happy there can't be any denying,
That any rays of hope seem so far away,
It leaves doubt that someone could make it through another day.

Many have been through these rough days before,
And time will prove, of rough times there will be plenty more.
But even when the light of day gives way to night,
Even in the darkness hope can still shed some light.

So what if the day doesn't go as planned?
What if one gets depressed and stress will demand?
These are still not reasons to stop looking for the rays of hope; keep seeking and you will find.
No matter how difficult one's day may be that there will be a way out...the light hope will still shine.