I'm forever grateful for the small seed of hope that another recovering woman planted in me very early in my recovery. I was brand-new and crying my eyes out in a Twelve Step meeting, unable to comprehend what others were sharing until I heard a woman explain that the four letters in the word hope stood for "hold on; pain ends.” By that time in my life, I'd been telling myself to just hold the hell on for years.
My ears perked up. I hadn't thought about hitching my wagon to the idea of hope prior to that moment, but something about the sincerity in her voice convinced me to just give hope a try.
That seed of hope kept me coming back for more, and the hope multiplied. The pain lifted enough that I started to hope that one day I might even be okay, and eventually I was.
If you are feeling hopeless and desperate about something in your life today, please hold on. Pain ends.
A wise woman once told me so. There's a reason that hope is called the gateway drug to recovery.