" ... hope, as Chesterson said, is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate."   Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird

I'm not sure "cheerful" is the word I would have chosen in the thought above. Perhaps "gracious' or "grace-filled" or "dignified" would be better words. I think of lives or situations that are so desperate that any form of "cheer" would be almost impossible. Maybe I need to expand my thinking on the word "cheerful." Regardless of the growing I need to do in the area of being cheerful, I think we can all find within us the capability of inner joy, kindness, respect, and patience in the face of desperate circumstances. In the beginning of my midlife divorce I felt a desperation... a desperate sadness... a desperate loneliness ... a desperate longing for my old life back. But eventually, on some rare occasions, I managed to get through the day more-or-less gracefully. And those times of hope and even cheer increased little by little, day by day, smile by smile. Then, finally, the desperation was eventually replaced by a new, deeper hope, faith, joy and a robust peace. There is power in the willingness to see beyond the pain, to see hope for the future and experience a new faith that life can (and undoubtedly will) be filled again with more than enough good cheer.

"Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!"  Romans 15:13 (The Message)