What keeps us waiting?

The night of the meteor shower I did wake up at 3am, and despite it still being mostly overcast with clouds, despite knowing there was a miniscule chance of seeing anything, despite not even knowing what I was looking for or what it looked like, I stayed. Yes, I know it sounds stupid, but I don’t know what made me stay.

What keeps us waiting? I suspect that it is the very thing that makes life both complicated and simple - Hope.

When it seems that you have nothing left, when life has stripped you of everything you ever wanted, you ever cherished or you ever valued, hope can often be all that you have left. Yet whatever glimmer is possessed, though sometimes too small and fragile to even believe that it is still there, it nevertheless continues to burn inside of us, fuelling our hearts to keep on trying and searching. It is this notion of choosing to believe despite all the odds, this notion that maybe, just maybe, it could happen if we try hard enough and things might change, this notion that somehow life will turn around, that truly make us human. Fundamentally, human wisdom is that we wait and we hope.

It can be tested, it can flicker like a candle in the wind, but hope never abandons us, we only abandon it. But with its help, we are able to achieve our greatest dreams, or guide others in theirs. Only with hope, can we become the change we seek in this world, and in ourselves. Because only with hope, do we see a chance, a possibility. Maybe that’s why we hold onto it so hard.

Also I know some people say you couldn’t see a thing, but let me have this moment of awe. I saw what I saw. And now, either curiosity or anticipation drives me next time to show you that such miracles of nature can be seen and witnessed. Maybe we’ll be luckier and see something more. But for now, this is all I need.

Don't lose hope. When it gets darkest the stars come out.
Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.-- Unknown.