LIGHT IN THE  TUNNEL 
 The word “HOPE” so small, used like a “cliché” but still has neither lost its  significance in our language of expression nor in the language of our mind,  heart and soul. 
The simplest of things in our life like writing a letter is also influenced by  hope. The opening line of our informal letter is invariably “Hope you are in  pink of your health!!” Even history has been witness to the role of hope in  geography. The Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama named the waterway on the tip of  as “Cape of Good Hope” because it gave him the hope to reach . Hope is like the  torchlight that is inevitable and the only support when all the candles blow out  in the storm of life. Challenges keep cropping up but learn to use the tool of  hope to weed them out before they damage our fertile soil.
 
 ONE CURE TO ALL AILMENTS
 Without being philosophical, hope can be defined as a palliative to ameliorate  our heart-felt wounds and bruises. We seldom talk about our conscious or  subconscious feelings to others. But deep down in the core all of us feel the  same. All of us in our lifetime go through highs and lows. Some are fortunate to  see less of lows but at some point of time, all of us stand at the so called  “last step” of the staircase but there still seems a wide chasm between that  last step and the terrace. Then how do we reach the terrace, Certainly not with  one big leap. It’s again a new small step but the strong banister this time is  Bright Ray of HOPE. Ever wondered what makes us tick and move apart from food,  light and oxygen? It is none but a vitamin pill of heart called hope, which is  available in plenty and free of cost for those who wish to live with zest and  vitality. But despite this there are some parsimonious hearts called pessimists  who would die bit by bit of agony but not heal their hearts. The lyrics of hope  can make our heart dance to tunes of joy and merry. UNEXPECTED TURNS We do not  always accomplish things according to our plans or expectations and this compels  us to look for other avenues and alternates. Though initially it is difficult to  accept it, we have to knock another door because the door of our choice is shut  on our face. But standing at the threshold of the door we have a choice either  to enter the new door with the great white hope that the room ahead is going to  be more inviting than the earlier room or keep brooding about what we missed in  the first room. If our hope is eternal, alive and strong there is no way we will  not realize or see that the new unplanned path we embarked is for our best.  Swami Chinmayananda says, “The really poor man is not the one who lacks money,  but who lacks the joy of the heart.” And the joy of heart is diminished with  dousing hope. Lakhs of students appear every year for the competitive entrance  exams aspiring to find a seat in the renowned classrooms of knowledge but only a  few hundreds of them can make it. So are the rest of them doomed to confined  walls of darkness? Certainly yes if they abandon hope. But those with wings of  hope soar much higher in new directions than they imagined. Horizons are not  limited for those who have eyes brimming with hope. When flood comes in our  lives, no problem. Perhaps that was meant to happen. But, when boats and  helicopters are also seen and come to save us, we must recognize them for what  they are – God sent.
 
 BRIDGE ACROSS THE SHORES 
 When a pebble is thrown into a puddle of stagnated water it produces enough  ripples making sound and churning the water for some time. Giving it activeness.  When the pebbles are pelted continuously, producing ripples and sounds, the  puddle is finally no longer seen instead stands a bridge to cross the dross.  This is exactly what the bridge of hope does for us. It churns our mind, heart  and soul to unite them together so that we set new targets till we fulfill them  once again. Though this sounds repetitive but undoubtedly “hope” is like the  first ray of sunlight in after half a year of darkness or that tiny green straw  in the vast snow-clad deserts of Siberia. So don’t let anything obstruct the  sunlight from entering our Norwegian-heart or anything crumple the green leaves  in our Siberian-heart. 
 GOD’S WILL
 Hope alone will give us the opportunities, strength and direction to explore,  exploit and harness all those hidden and secret horizons leading to heights and  happiness untold before. “Hope” is probably the mysterious hint God gives us to  fulfill the ultimate plans made by Him for us. So it is up to us if we care to  take the hint, decipher it and reach our destiny as decided by Him, which is  always infallible. 
 The crux is as Cathy Jacob writes:
 “Today is a fresh day, be it sad or gay, Try things in a new way, No matter what  it may be. A chance to make a fresh beginning, And to change failure into  winning; to live a little better, And let your faith not shatter. You can be a  winner, When God is on your side; Just trust His loving care, For He can turn  the tide.”