It's Hard To Have Hope

By: Wendell Berry

Photograph by Guy Mendes

It is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old,
for hope must not depend on feeling good
and there is the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight.

You also have withdrawn belief in the present reality
of the future, which surely will surprise us,
and hope is harder when it cannot come by prediction
any more than by wishing. But stop dithering.

The young ask the old to hope. What will you tell them?
Tell them at least what you say to yourself.