Do you remember watching the movie, Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr.?
It’s about a woman who found out her husband was cheating on her so she decides to go back home with her young daughter to try and figure out her life.
I fell in love with this romantic drama even though the reviews weren’t very positive, but what I find interesting is that the soundtrack and the quotes from this movie still resonate with people.
While reading an article recently I came across my favorite quote which is, “Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most.”
Try to remember this when you find yourself at a new beginning.
Just give hope a chance to float up.”
I kept thinking about how all of us go through pain and it sure is real, but so is hope!
I believe it is something we feel after we have overcome a difficult time in our lives and look back thinking, “How did I get through all that?”
We don’t know what others around us might be struggling within their lives yet we are able to offer them something that is free which is kindness, compassion, non-judgment and the possibility that there is hope!
I am not saying this is easy, I am suggesting that it could become a practice as we begin a new day, a new moment, a new attitude towards life.
What inspired me to practice this more was reading the book by Poet Nina Riggs called “The Bright Hour A Memoir of Living and Dying“.
Nina Riggs was only 37 and the mother of two young sons when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Within a year she lost her mother to cancer and learned she was terminal as well.
This brilliantly written book is disarmingly funny, deeply moving and more about how to love all of our days, even the bad ones.
Diggs desire was to convey the experience of “living with death” in the room every day that all of us have or will eventually relate to.
She states, “Cancer is not the real story it is more about everyday stuff like negotiating life with your kids, your parents, your partner, your friends, your job, your home, your pets, and having the chance to live the cruel and the beautiful.”
Riggs profoundly wrote, “Every single life is lived in the shadow of our mortality, which means all these things we cherish are not just part of life, they’re ultimately part of our death and I have learned to appreciate both.”
She describes the terrible feeling of being sad and describes the messiness of her own dying, but her fabulous sense of humor creates a miraculous blend of light and joy.
In one of my favorite chapters in the book she is texting her friend Ginny, who had the same kind of breast cancer and decided they were going to go into business together and call it “Damaged Goods.” They brainstormed ideas for a line of morbid prefab cancer patient thank-cards to real or imaginary people that Ginny calls “casserole bitches.” One example was; “Thank you for the taco casserole. It worked better than my stool softeners.”
I laughed, cried and contemplated about her daily life experiences and it suddenly made sense to me that the ultimate treasure she gave to us didn’t take the form of beating cancer, instead it was NOT allowing cancer to destroy her beautiful spirit.
She elevated me to a place of emotional clarity about what makes life meaningful and how we need to cherish each day.
This book should be required reading for everyone, it is a beautiful gift to her family, to her husband, her children and also a gift to all of us.
I was deeply moved by her urgent call to honor what makes us human: love, art, music, words… and of course HOPE.
I’ll end this with a beautiful quote by Rumi:
“Never lose hope my dear heart, miracles happen in the invisible.”
With appreciation,
Maria Bucci
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