H is for Hope.

Hope -  noun a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen, a feeling of trust, want something to happen or be the case.

Hope is one of those buzz words people like to throw around, a little bit like 'love' or 'hate' but really it's a much stronger word than those. It's the same number of letters, same balance of vowels and consonants, same pronunciation rules but it means so much more. 

Hope can mean something simple, everyone hopes it will be sunny next weekend, men hope there football team will win and school kids hope they pass their exams but for some people, a minority I know, hope means the world. Hope means the possibility of carrying on, of fighting another day, maybe even of just making it through for a little bit longer. And that isn't something you can translate to someone who's never been there. It's an idea that doesn't communicate well to people, lucky people, who haven't been in a position where hope is the only thing you have. Hope is there when all else is gone; when pride is lost, confidence shattered and self motivation disappeared, its there to keep you going.

But it's also so easily lost. It can be stolen in seconds by a few choice words or a simple act by someone who probably doesn't even realise they've done it.

Hope is like a glass ladder. 

You only need to start off with one rung, each small step taking you that little bit higher, giving you a little bit more faith. You can add more rungs when you please and if you slip down one of two rungs that's okay because you can always climb back up but its fragile. It could withstand the big blows that knock you sideways because it's still there for you to climb back up but one little tap in the perfect spot can bring the whole thing crashing down so not only are you on the floor again but you don't have a ladder any more, it's much harder to rebuild a whole ladder from scratch than it is to climb back a few steps at a time.

So guard you're hope, hold it close to you and never forget how precious it is.