Hope is far more available to us than we know

​I will vote tomorrow. When I do, I'll select names and a party that I think best align with the way I see the world. I'll vote in line with beliefs I hold true. But one thing my vote won't align with is - my hope.

When I vote tomorrow, and when I hear the results tomorrow night or the next day or whenever - I'll have no more or no less hope than I have today.

I think our elections, maybe this one more than others, evoke such strong emotions because we all long for hope. We want something visible that we can point to and be certain that our problems are about to be solved.

We've had a lot of elections over the years. On the other side of them the problems keep coming. The hopelessness stays with us.

I wonder if that's because too often we fail to see that hope is invisible. It's not found in a flag or a sign in the yard or on a bumper sticker. It doesn't increase with the size of the rally or the words in a speech.

To the contrary, hope is quiet and humble. Hope doesn't set out to solve problems but to soothe the hurt that comes with the inevitability of them.

When the dying man looks up and sees an unexpected smile - he feels a hope no election could ever give or take away.

When the lonely child feels her hand disappear inside the hand of another, her problems haven't disappeared. But for a moment, an invisible hope feels far more powerful than the problems that have stared her down all her life.

Tomorrow I'll vote. I'll be in line with people who will in many ways feel at war with one another. And at the other end of that line, we'll cast votes. We'll make selections we believe will transform invisible wars into a hope we can see and hear and inaugurate.

Meanwhile - somewhere - someone will be humbly tending to the widows and the orphans and the poor. They will be quietly spreading the hope so many of us are loudly clamoring for.

I hope we all vote tomorrow. But more, I hope we'll all come to one day see we don't need to vote for hope - it's far more available to us than we many days see.

Hope may be quiet and humble and invisible - it may be unelectable - but it's not unavailable. If you don't believe me, without a word take the hand of a hurting child. Just walk with them a bit.

You'll see hope.