“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” -Carl Bard

Many of us Hope for personal Changes in this new year – better health, weight loss, better relationships, a more fulfilling career. And, we wish for Changes in our nation and wider world to give us Hope for a better future, a better economy, better relationships between political parties, between countries – changes to bring Hope for peace in the world and to bring our troops home from war.

So much to Change in our lives and in our world that it seems overwhelming and HopeLESS. However, Hope and Change are not words that we can entrust to external forces, but words that call up the strength and creativity within each of us.

Some time ago, my youngest sister would frequently send me little quizzes that ask all kinds of questions about me, like: What are you listening to right now? How many states have you lived in? Do you like diamonds or pearls better?

Most of the questions were trivial, but the one question that every quiz had that shook me to the core was…

What are you most afraid of?

And, I always responded…

What I am most afraid of is not using my gifts and talents to the highest purpose and living up to my potential, wasting this precious gift of life.

My epiphany was when I realized that “living up to my potential” rests solely on my ability to create my own reality in the moment of now. This gift of life is our chance to co-create with God or the Universe or the All-That-Is, literally bringing the intangible into the tangible.

In other words, with every inspiration or creative thought or change in perspective that comes through us, we, with our hands, birth it into the physical world. We are not so much CHANGING, but CREATING the world, our world, our life, the lives of others.

Wow! What a responsibility – what a privilege.

And, with that, we create our own Hope. In fact, we are responsible for our own Hope – we can have faith and belief and power in our own Hope.

With every choice we make –

We are the Change.

We are the Hope.

Please leave your comments, questions and ideas below. And, remember, “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” -George Eliot

Lisa :-)

*     *     *     *     *

Thanks so much for reading. Please subscribe to my RSS feed or fill out that cute little box to your right and I will hand deliver fresh & healthy food for thought to your email inbox – about once a week.