variations on hope

These cards...the effect of the gold emboss that just can't be translated onto a computer screen...definitely more stunning to have them in front of you...

Anyway, I really, really like this take on the Star, I must say. Usually the star is such a positively drawn card, so hopeful...and yes, it is after all, the major that deals most specifically with the concept of hope, and yet...in a way, by illustrating it so nicely, it almost takes away from the flip side - the fact that, when you need hope most...the times when seeing that star card's message can be most helpful...those are the times when things aren't going so well at all.

We see two figures here - bony, scrawny, near-naked. One of them buries her head in the embrace of the other who holds her, comforting. Sometimes that's what hope is: the person or thing that you can turn to, when things are most difficult. The shoulder you can cry on. Reasuring words. A hug, a pat, a friendly squeeze of the hands. More, less. The knowledge that someone is there, listening; that someone still cares enough to stand there with you in the dark, among the small, glittering stars.

And sometimes hope can be found in the other end of that too. Sometimes, when you just can't seem to find it for yourself...the act of helping someone else, the act of offering support, of having to reassure, say nice things because someone is crying, upset and you want to make them feel better...it can brighten, lighten things for you too. If you say it to someone else enough, it may start creeping back into your mind too, bit by bit, the light. Things you may not be motivated to do for 'me' you may in fact get done if it is 'we' that you can focus on...

Hope in giving and hope in getting, in being alone and in finding someone else. Hope born of difficult, of shivering in the dark, of learning to do without clothes. Hope in a touch, hope in breaking away, hope in the promise of something more, eventually. Hope etched into skin and hair. Hope in the distance, in the abstract. Hope in memories and dreams. Hope hidden in the corners where you'd never think to look, normally. Hope from the people and places you'd least expect. Hope from within you, long after you thought you had none of it left. Hope that blossoms in the moments when you are certain you have nothing left to spare. Synthesis, Symbiosis. Hope in touch, in sound, in the glittering gold detail.