Guest Column on Hope

I have a dear friend named Mary Galbreath. She has been in the background for years to pick me up when I needed support or to simply supply a kind word when life became a bit overwhelming.

Sometimes it’s difficult to hold onto Hope. Life changes, and sometimes the direction we have chosen is not exactly the path we are destined to travel.

I first met Mary when I was helping make fishermen and women aware of aquatic hitchhikers on our local lake. She and her husband were bringing their boat out of the lake, ready to head home the first time we talked many years ago.

The conversation quickly turned to the green foam on the lake and the stench around the edges of the lake. I had recently discovered that what we thought was algae was actually a bacteria known as Cyanobacteria. Her husband John was having massive asthma attacks and my lupus had begun to flair for the first time in over 20 years. Both of us had lake homes and were having difficulty with the airborne toxins from the Cyanobacteria.

We don’t always have the opportunity to choose our path

Mary and John gave up their beautiful lake home at a huge loss to protect John’s life and get away from the medical threat of the lake we both loved eight out of twelve months each year. It’s been very difficult for them and things have not turned around. Each time I talk to Mary, I try to bring a spirit of Hope into her life as I face my own struggle with the health threat of remaining where we choose to retire.

Yesterday I told her I wanted to feature her on my blog. I wanted her to provide a story of Hope for all of us. Her journey to understanding over the past twenty-four hours is astounding. It has allowed her to come full circle and again find hope in the stories and struggles of others who have never given up.

Hopeful Inspiration through Memories

By: Mary Galbreath

Peggy, when you gave me the assignment to write a guest blog about hope. I thought about it, wanted to write something sensational to impress others or you, but I have walked some pretty sad moments feeling no hope. Yet I knew it was there.

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Hope doesn’t leave. He hangs around waiting for you to discover the richness and the color of hope.

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Then I researched the internet looking for the scripture in Jeremiah that is about hope and one I had cross stitched in a wall hanging to be displayed in my farm home many years ago. I knew the verse chapter and number as I have read it many times. I have dusted the frame, glared at it in nights of rocking babies, lighting candles on the table when there was a storm, but for lack of brain cells I just typed in “Jeremiah Hope” and this was the website that came up: