"The Hope Room" can be just about any room, any place or any person. It can be accessed any time of the day or night. The common thread is a gentle pulse of hope that begins to pump light into the dark corners of your mind and soul.
This idea of "The Hope Room" came to me when I walked into physical therapy one day feeling very down about the lack of progress in my ankle. It had been over 3 1/2 weeks since I started therapy with little change. But, surrounded by others who are dealing with injuries and working with professionals trained to help us get better, I found myself starting to feel better by the end of my session. A renewed sense of hope.
It's good to be here, I thought.
The Hope Room can be a sanctuary, a theatre, a piece of music filling the air waves as you drive, a coffee shop, a written or spoken word and even your kitchen table.
I found it in the conference room at the retirement community where my mother lives. There are 104 residents in the skilled nursing care facility but there were only 14 family members represented who sat around the table. I wondered why there weren't more. It became a room of hope for me as I realized that I am not alone in this journey. Many expressed the same exact sentiments that I have.
We met around a large table to discuss how to make our loved one's experience better there. I'm pretty sure I was the youngest one there. My mother was 43 when I was born so many of my friends have grandmothers the age of my mother. I am sometimes asked if I'm her granddaughter. But regardless of the age differences, we were all in the same room for the same reason. We wanted a sense of hope.
Monday I had lunch with a new friend. She lives in North Carolina but is visiting PA. We met when we shared a stage together months ago at a local women's conference, leading worship. We hit it off immediately. Now we were sitting at a little cafe in Harrisburg and she began to tell me her journey with her mother who died a few years ago from cancer.
There it was again. There were no physical walls surrounding us in the outdoor cafe, but I felt loved and embraced by the hope that filled my heart as we compared notes as if it was a room for just two.
It was "The Hope Room".
It keeps popping up everywhere I go.
Look for it. You will enter it as you keep your heart and eyes open for it.
