Hope is a Funny Word

By Diana McCollum

Hope is a sad word to some, as in “I hope I recover from cancer.” The outcome of treatment is not a guarantee of a cure.

“I hope the tornado does not hit our house.” This is hopefulness the weather does not take a turn towards the house.

Copyright : Olga Lyubkin

We can hope for ourselves, our family, our country or the world. Hope can be felt with confidence, expectation, optimism, anticipation, faith and courage.

At one time or another we have all experienced some form of “Hope”. I know I’ve experienced all of the above various feelings of hope.

I’ve lost hope, too. When my Father was dying from cancer I hoped with all my heart and prayers that by some miracle he would be saved. It wasn’t to be. When I arrived at my parents’ house two days before my Dad expired, I went into the bedroom where he lay on a hospital bed provided by Hospice. He looked like he was sleeping. I knelt down on the floor and brushed his forehead with my fingertips. Dad opened his weary eyes and said, “Di, you’re here.” He closed his eyes, and hope fled from my heart.

Those were the last words my father spoke to me.

I try to be optimistic and look at the bright side of life. Last year I was hopeful I’d get a book published and I did, along with Sister Sarah and Judith. But along with hope were perseverance, dedication and co-operation to make it happen.

Glacier Park picture by Diana McCollum

I hoped my husband and I could go on a long vacation. We had not been on one in three years, and we did! Visiting Montana, Idaho WA and British Columbia, again, it took planning and confidence and anticipation to pull it off. Husband has severe back problems so we had to plan to only drive 3 to 4 hours a day. I

had to ask my Sister Sarah to leave her husband and stay with our 89 year old Mom so she wouldn’t be alone while we were gone. I had to withdraw money from my IRA. Everything came together and our hope of a vacation became a reality.

Copyright : Marek Uliasz

So my conclusion on HOPE is you can hope for something all you want, sit back and it may or may not materialize.

Or you can HOPE for something with confidence, optimism courage, faith and participation. One still may not get what they hope for, but wouldn’t you rather be “doing” than “sitting”?

Has God Winked at You?

By Diana McCollum

While wandering through Barnes & Noble on New Year’s Day 2015, I spied a book on the discount table, When God Winks at You by S Quire Rushnell. https://www.whengodwinks.com/about/

I bought it on a whim thinking I’d read a chapter a day of something different than my usual romance, paranormal, or thriller genres. Little did I know this pint-size book would suck me in and I would finish it in two days.

You are probably wondering, ‘What is a God Wink?” Some might call them coincidences, chance or a twist of fate. But the author and I believe it is God’s way of watching out for us and sometimes answering our prayers.

God Winks can be from a departed loved one. In the book, a lady walks into a coffee shop where a musician is playing. He asks for requests and she says, “Do you know any hymns?” The musician grew up playing church music and proceeds pick a song to play and sing, ‘His Eye is on the Sparrow’. The woman joins in singing. The coffee house patrons quiet, all moved by the feeling in the woman’s voice.

Afterwards, she said it was odd he picked that song as it was her sixteen year old daughters’ favorite. Her daughter had passed away from brain cancer the week before. That evening God’s arm was around the woman, comforting and reassuring.

Think of a mother who takes her sleeping child from the crib into the living room. She has never bothered her sleeping child at any other time. She just had a feeling she should hold the baby. Almost immediately a car comes crashing through the child’s bedroom wall.

There are so many examples in the book. I started thinking about my own “God Winks”. Have I ever had one? The author seemed to think everyone experiences God Winks at some point in their lives.

Here are a few of my own:

I was due to go in for a biopsy and quite worried. My sister was worried too. She went to dinner and her fortune cookie said “Don’t worry all will be well.”

When my Father passed away at home, the family was with him. I prayed to myself, “Take Dad to heaven, where he’ll be pain free and safe.” The front door bell rang immediately and my sister-in-law and I went to see who was there. 

There was no one outside in the drive, or walking or driving on the street. Mom and Dad lived in the country with an acre of land. I told the Hospice nurse about what happened when she came. She said there are strange things that happen when a person passes. 

I think it was Dad saying he was on his way to heaven. I had been reassured by a God Wink.

Many, many times I’ll be thinking about one of my kids, missing them, wishing I could hear their voice, and boom! They call me instead of texting! Whoo hoo! And it makes my day brighter!



My story in "Gifts from the Heart" a valentine's anthology, "Saved by the Ring" is based on a true story and a definite God Wink!!  (Now available from Windtree Press and other venues.)

Have you experienced a God Wink or coincidence you can’t explain, something which made you feel ‘someone’ was looking out for you?