{"id":1015,"date":"2015-09-08T15:44:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T15:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2015-09-08T15:44:37","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T15:44:37","slug":"the-power-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/09\/the-power-of-hope.html","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

I walk up the mounting block and place my foot in the stirrup while throwing my other leg over the horse. There are three of us riding in the ring this morning.<\/p>\n

I take a moment to gather myself – the reigns and other stirrup that is.<\/p>\n

“What a beautiful morning!” I announce joyfully. <\/p>\n

I am in the moment. I had almost forgot what that feels like – actually living life rather than muddling through it while being ridiculously stressed and distracted.<\/p>\n

I didn’t believe this moment, this day would come.<\/p>\n

As is always my nature, I seldom hold back. Well, on the horse I might, but with my heart never.<\/p>\n

“I can’t believe it,” I say. “It feels great to start the day actually noticing it’s beauty! To wake up saying, ‘What a gorgeous day,’ instead of ‘I hate Ralph!'” (name of course changed to protect the not so innocent.)<\/p>\n

I am two years into this divorce. Some have come before me and will come after me that will be able to do this sooner thankfully. However, that has not been my experience or journey. I have aged twenty years in these two years. Okay, so I exxagerate (only so slightly.)<\/p>\n

The horse is slow to start. At first I think it’s rider error, but then realize he not feeling so great and needs to make a pitstop. <\/p>\n

When he’s finished his business he bolts. I think an attempt to make up for the fact he has ignored my previous leg squeezing calls for action.<\/p>\n

I grab back on the reigns not really willing to take off with such speed.<\/p>\n

Nacho has a kick in his step. He is telling me that he’s feeling better. <\/p>\n

So am I. <\/p>\n

My ‘joie de vivre’ is slowly returning. The ‘Colleen’ I left behind is finding me again.<\/p>\n

The Colleen that was one big hot divorce mess is feeling stronger, wiser though still bruised, and niave enough to feel hopeful again.<\/p>\n

I feel a little kick in my step.<\/p>\n

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I walk up the mounting block and place my foot in the stirrup while throwing my other leg over the horse. There are three of us riding in the ring this morning. I take a moment to gather myself – the reigns and other stirrup that is. “What a beautiful morning!” I announce joyfully. 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Born to my native Brooklyn parents, I have a love of all things city and all things country. I found myself in the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to The Office, nary a soul could envision less you found yourself on the hills of Interstate 81. I was held up there while I pursued my B.S. in Business. I have two passions: Business marketing and writing. The two are not so terribly different. Why? Cultivating a brand is in essence the story and the connecting of the dots of a corporate entity. I write features for various magazines and newspapers and I am a national divorce columnist (what can I say things didn\u2019t turn out quite the way I thought they would). I am also a former business columnist. For more than fifteen years, I spent my summers on the Jersey Shore in what I call my \u2018out of state\u2019 clothes once again magnetized to the northerners I find so familiar. If I were to brand my writing, I would say I write of LOVE. That is the core from which I begin most stories. I find myself drawn to dig for the moments in the story that are the passion that drive the message. It may be the love of what originally started a business or an authentically motivated personal profile, or simply the love of a subject being investigated which compels me to write. My forever favorite form of writing is the human interest essay or what I call, \u201cAn Interview With Life.\u201d The average day that is explored and somehow once again instills in us a joie de vivre\u2026..a joy of life. These human moments are the Hope Virus that spreads amongst us and can\u2019t help but propel us into better human beings with a larger sense of the world.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/author\/corme"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1019,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}