My penultimate day of work, and I spent much of it clearing emails out of my inbox. There’s one that’s been sitting in there for a long time. It’s one of those inspiration-motivation daily quotation emails that I signed up to once upon a time. And with most of those I read them, [nod approvingly/roll my eyes], and delete. But I didn’t delete this one. Was that because I knew I’d want to write about hope sooner or later? Undoubtedly. Was that the only reason? Possibly not.
Hope is not dead, it is just larger than our imaginations
– Kathy Hobaugh
And why not, I ask myself. There are many things that are larger than my imagination. The universe. The divine. Why not hope, too?
Who is Kathy Hobaugh? I’ve no idea. She might be appalling. She might be a genius. She might, in this case, be right.
I’ve been sneaking around the corners of despair and burnout this year, trying to keep my head down, do what I can to improve things within my reach, and not look at Twitter more than is good for my sanity, wondering what the point of it all is. Nevertheless, I have not deleted that email.
All this year I’ve been expecting things to get worse.
Now, I find myself thinking that it’s possible that they might get better.
Kathleen Jowitt 
Do you know “Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson?
I was only thinking of it this morning; it starts
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
…
Last year I learned it by heart and kept it close and alive in my memory…but this year I had forgotten it until today
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