"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."
~Thich Nhat Hanh

I spend a lot of time thinking about hope.  It plays a huge part in what I do every day.  If the folks I work with don't have hope that they can get better and have a life again, then why bother?  There are so many things I hope for.  I thought I'd share a few.

-I hope that the North Korean leader(s) come to their collective senses and stop playing around with dangerous materials
-I hope that the people in Newtown find some peace in their lives but I know that it's a bit soon
-I hope that Spring comes soon
-I hope that I get to grow old with my Peter Kevin, the love of my life
-I hope that Elanor finds a job (she had an interview at a local bakery this morning)
-I hope to get to the west coast one day and meet Roxie and Amy
-I hope to go to Rhinebeck one year
-I hope that my dad is happy (and also my sister-I haven't seen/heard from either one of them in a very very long time but I think about them often)
-I hope Peter Kevin's boss will one day realize how good he is at his job and give him the respect he deserves
-I hope my atm card comes soon.


Some of these hopes are important and some are just whims.  That's the thing about hope.  It's endlessly available if you just know where to look for it.  I spend my days helping people find it.

My last one there is not whimsical.  I discovered yesterday that someone used my atm card number to order some things from walmart.com.  I called the bank immediately and disputed the charge.  They put an immediate stop on the card.  So, now I have no easy access to my money.  I have to go back to the days of writing checks.  I have to go to the bank on Friday and get money for the weekend and write a check for my groceries.  Not having immediate access to my money feels so odd.  It's funny because atm cards haven't been around all that long but they quickly became integral to my routine.

When the new card comes I have to contact all the automatic debits I have to let them know the number is different.  I am loathe to blame this on knitpicks which seems to be the thing to do these days.  I know some of their information was compromised and they may be responsible but I don't want to add to the dump pile already on top of them.  The woman at the bank told me it could just as easily been someone with a random number generator who got lucky.  They're evidently everywhere.

Well, that's my tale of woe.  I hope you're day is going well.  I'm off to eat some lunch and read a bit.  Pk made me a salad for lunch and he usually makes good ones.