Category: Career

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

I decided years ago that unemployment is harder to work through than grief.

Why?

Because there is not as much hope. 

Google hope and you will get the following definition:

a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

The Day I Had Hope

On April 17th, 2008 I had hope of getting through grief, thanks to the daily devotion in Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations For Working Through Grief by Martha Whitmore Hickman.

The devotion was about flowers and trees blooming, the sun shining and the birds singing. When I stepped out the door onto the front steps to go to work, I was filled with hope because it was as if I had stepped into the day the devotion described.

It was warm, the birds were singing, trees were in bud and flowers were blooming. The grass was green and the sky a lovely shade of blue. There was nothing that could destroy my hope.

I knew then I would make it through grief even though there would be some rough days ahead.

The Day I Lost Most Of My Hope

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Seamus Heaney

A year later  I got laid off due to a departmental reorganization.  I not only had hope but was confident I would quickly find a new job.

Sure it was still a little scary losing a long term job but I had found it in the newspaper and was certain I would find another one the same way. Yes, it was 2009 and I expected to find a job in the newspaper want ads.

However, hope faded the day I went to the outplacement company for career counseling. I left there with 4 books to use as a road map to job searching – 4 books! Each book covered a different phase like creating a marketing plan – huh?  I am a human being not a can of soup!

That day was a rude awakening.

Sustaining Hope

We really feel happier when things look bleak. Hope is endurance. Hope is holding on and going on and trusting in the Lord.

Michael Novak

Being unemployed or even underemployed requires the ability to sustain hope for long periods of time, which drains me.

Even though there are days I am drained either because of my negative self talk or other people’s criticism and condemnation, I must find a way to hold on to hope and to trust God will answer my prayers for a job which will enable me to pay the bills and get ahead financially.

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.

Edward Kennedy

Thankful

Thankful for hope still living, even on the days when it is a little flicker.

Bio: Michele Kearns is the founder and HUG© (Hope Unites Globally) Award-Winner of JoyReturns. She shares her widowhood adventures hoping to encourage widows to move through grief and rebuild their lives. A graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor’s degree in communications, she’s used those skills while managing call center teams, facilitating a grief support group and helping small businesses with various writing and administrative assignments. Michele is a bookworm, lover of chocolate, red roses and golden retrievers and is an amateur photographer.