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06. The Hand of Hope

Hand of Hope

If you are burdened by the load you are carrying on your shoulders

With the weight of your own problems and the worries of others

Throw them back, stand tall and let the burden slip to the floor.

If your feet are as heavy as lead and your footsteps laboured

With every aching step you take on life's rocky and uncertain road

Stride out and find a smoother path to follow, cushioned by sweet grass.

If the fear twists like a snake in the pit of your stomach and the bile rises to

Leave a bitter taste in your mouth and is swallowed along with your pride

Breathe deep and let the fragrant perfume of trust flow through your veins and restore your self belief.

If you feel problems and despair are trapped within the cage of your head

And no-one is willing to open the door to allow them to be shared

Commit them to paper and let the pen become your friend.

If you can hold hope in your hand, grasp it, cherish it, and believe in it,

Then share that hope with those less fortunate, then hope will blossom into reality and be yours.

(c) Jan Hedger

The Hand of Hope

A hand that is extended in friendship is a hand of hope. It aspires to both help and be helped. It is ready to guide and to be led. It holds the door open between two traveling souls and it carries with it the gift of time.

Time to learn and grow together, time to enjoy the rewards that friendship brings and time to reflect upon the journey.

Ashley Jordan (GROW)

The Hand of Hope

The hand of hope catches all the circumstances thrown at it and holds them steady before a contemplative gaze.

The hand of hope rests gently in the lap of acceptance. It does not squeeze or clench in anger. It remains open and relaxed.

The hand of hope is always ready to greet the new, the old, the changed and the familiar.

The hand of hope does not try to hold on to others. It sits with them, until they are ready to move on. When that time comes, it acknowledges the lessons and blessings that they have brought. It lifts them up, releases them and then it waves them goodbye.

The hand of hope is the hand of a mother...

Ashley Jordan (GROW)

The Hand of Hope

My hands are available to give out as much help as I can to others. I hope that the things I try to do will make them realise that there are people, not many, who will do their best to give comfort and understanding. So many are not able to accept help from other people. Myself, I feel joy to think I have done something worthwhile and it certainly cleanses the mixed-up emotions in my head. It is like a de-clutter.

I have a dear friend who runs her own business. She is finding everything getting too much for her. She has had scaffolding around her home and months of dirt and dust. The scaffolding is down now, so I went round and we got down to lots of cleansing.

When we finished, she said to me "I feel so much lighter, mentally. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Our hands of hope are nearly achieved.

Jan Humphreys (GROW)

Hand of Hope

In a Heavenly realm
where servants toil and
peace ascends while smiles
blends and willow bends

The Hand of hope floats
like candles lit by breezes
floating on pillows in clouds
of Vapor and sea creatures

Where skies and lands are
harvesters of loving plans
and natures environment
is at ease to suit are needs

So the Hand of Hope nurtures
our fragile balance in
creative elements to meet
a beautiful, loving, desirable
Home land

Paul Evans

(Stevenage Survivors)

THE HAND OF HOPE

My pen in my hand
traces thoughts in my mind,
covers the page
and slowly unwind.

So many pages
are covered like this,
time that is mine
moments of bliss.

I let my hand wander
free as a bird,
hoping that somewhere
my words will be heard.

Like a violin that strums
music is wrought,
the rhythm of words
magic is caught.

This is the hand
that scribbles alone,
wrapped now in silence
a web of my own.

Sally Flood

LOST AND FOUND
(Angels of our time)

Peace, re-united souls
Through the archives of time and distress
Angel (named thirty six years on)
Sam laid to rest in a service of the heart and soul
Twins now respected, re-united together in the unseen world of time
Mother feels a sense of light burden being lifted
Understanding coming from a source that least was expected
Her twins are now joined...they did not survive
But the wonder of future medical science has made her wonder
But milk spilled cannot be mended, but the souls within the living unseen world can
Closure of the mind of concern for a lost child for so many years
Angel I believe at last is now joined like the conjoined twins of the real world
medically parted to help them live...
imagine the lost soul of Sam crying out for his lost twin he could not find for rest -
all their mother can do now is move on in the living world
Knowing after communication understood at last was given
Quite often, the truth of sensation of a mother against medical science should be heard
Then heartache would be respected in the real world.
The sensation of true light now lives
Safely impacted within the peaceful relaxing soul of mother
Unseen, unheard
Siblings not born but miscarried - respectfully joined within family that they should have been -
not lost now but surviving in the world of lost and found souls
Peace is now found, souls at long last laid to rest

The Hand of Hope

My sins are washed away for a moment. I am a human. A victim of oppression. "You are hanging with the wrong crowd". The crowd is already picking the stones ready to tear piece by piece. "Stick with the person you like and it will rub on you." Wait the second, it doesn't mean to break her neck, because you want what she has. I am making the same mistake as He did almost 2,000 years ago. Onions, or Icarus, or something between? I am dreaming. He pushed me gently, it's time to go. I left my cocoon bewildered, entering new path. I am not dreaming. I walked this path before, long time ago. There will be helping hands to take me, to lead me, to encourage me.

Marie Neumann (GROW, POW!)

The Hand of Hope

(from a Vale House workshop Spring 2009)

The hand of hope reached out
across a land scarred
by decades of deadly enmity
its peoples ravaged, body and soul
divided by religion, politics, culture, colour
The war had raged for so long
people had forgotten there was any other way to be

But the hand of hope reached out - its palm
filled with tiny seeds
Long grass grew and swayed in the wind
among poppies, meadowsweet and memories

The hand of hope reached a little further
sowing peace within the heart of humankind
reminding us of love and forgiveness
of sun and rain
of rainbows and possibilities
of extending the hands of hope.

Lucia Birch
(Stevenage Survivors)

The hand of hope

In either hand a palm, one small and sticky

with promise, tugging, the other broader,

its lifeline crosshatched with yours, but you

never thought to walk this way alone.

Bruce Barnes - friend of Fed

Friendship Means...

Instant connection, saying the same words at the same time and a ray of understanding between two people. It also means: "I need somebody to take care of my cat." "Sure he can stay." I am not to good at that, but I am learning. It also means we know each other for very long time. We connected long time ago.

Today nothing can break these ties - only an ultimate breaker. It also means a little, shy smile: "Good morning", when we offer a new one.

Marie Neumann (GROW & POW)

The Hand of Hope

There is no future, in the past.

Memories of the mind

Cannot be recreated

For nothing is the same twice.

Look to dreams of the future

For that is where destiny lies,

Not in that, which is left behind.

Turn the key, lock the door

Archive it.

Jan Hedger (GROW)

White Lace

I dreamt I saw an angel

Dressed in pure white lace

Her wings they did a flutter

As she beckoned from above

I wanted now to join her

To find freedom from the pain

But there was a hand that held me

From my man of forty year

I turned and met his tired eyes

And asked of him one last thing

My hand he then let slip away

You'll always be my angel, my friend.

Jan Hedger (GROW

Tranquillity

Oh dear sweet woodland of pure tranquillity

Oh how I bathe in your ethereal beauty

Nature's cathedral in majestic splendour,

Rising, aspiring, and saluting the sky.

Let not it silence fool you, nor its stillness belie

For if you pause a moment

upon your passing through

You'll hear a choir of angel's song

to freshen you anew.

All manner of creatures are there, although hidden

They'll bid you come!

Come join in our congregation.

Do as they bid, my friend, and linger a while longer

Your heart will be lifted, your senses heightened,

Your resolve stronger.

Reach out; capture its essence,

secrete it away in your mind

So when you feel bruised and battered,

By the injustice of mankind

Release it; and let the scene unfold

Allow it to breathe; it's yours to behold.

Oh dear sweet woodland of pure tranquillity

Oh how I bathe in your ethereal beauty.

Jan Hedger GROW