So I got sucked into the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks the other night.  I had forgotten what a great movie it is.  For those who haven’t seen it, basically he gets into a plane crash and gets washed up alive on a deserted island.  Most of the movie is just him on this island and how he survives for over 4 years there and eventually makes it back home.  He says something at the end of the movie (once he’s back home) that I think is so powerful.  Here’s the quote:

“We both had done the math. Kelly added it all up and… knew she had to let me go. I added it up, and knew that I had… lost her. ‘cos I was never gonna get off that island. I was gonna die there, totally alone. I was gonna get sick, or get injured or something. The only choice I had, the only thing I could control was when, and how, and where it was going to happen. So… I made a rope and I went up to the summit, to hang myself. I had to test it, you know? Of course. You know me. And the weight of the log, snapped the limb of the tree, so I-I – , I couldn’t even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power over *nothing*. And that’s when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket. I knew, somehow, that I had to stay alive. Somehow. I had to keep breathing. Even though there was no reason to hope. And all my logic said that I would never see this place again. So that’s what I did. I stayed alive. I kept breathing. And one day my logic was proven all wrong because the tide came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I’m back. In Memphis, talking to you. I have ice in my glass… And I’ve lost her all over again. I’m so sad that I don’t have Kelly. But I’m so grateful that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?”

Sometimes we can feel so hopeless, and all your logic may be telling you you’re completely screwed but if you just keep breathing, if you just keep living in the breath, and stay, at the very, very least, neutral (not positive or negative), you never know what will open up for you.

According to the Accurate and Reliable Dictionary (compared to all those phony, unreliable ones), hope is defined as a desire of some good, accompanied with an expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable; an expectation of something which is thought to be desirable; confidence; pleasing expectancy. 

Next time you feel like you have no control, or you’re just feeling really lousy, whatever you do, don’t give up hope because you never know what the tide will bring!