high hopes

Available through Edgewater Gallery

I have fond memories of my dad singing this Frank Sinatra song to me when I was feeling downhearted. The human spirit is indomitable and hope is a complicated concept.

Just what makes that little old ant
Think he’ll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant can’t
Move a rubber tree plant
But he’s got high hopes
He’s got high hopes

Pema Chodron suggests posting on my refrigerator a sticky note that says “abandon hope” but I’m still going to keep a small place in my heart for hope to dwell, and I will listen to Mary Oliver, knowing that the things I can’t reach are worth reaching for.

There are things you can’t reach. But you can reach out to them, and all day long.

The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.

And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.

– Mary Oliver