Maybe this year will be better than the last

A while back Fred Clark was collecting Advent songs.  Not Christmas songs.  Advent.  The sense that something is coming, the hope it will be good.  The longing for something better.

"Long December" by counting Crows was one that he picked out.  It's a song I know well.  It's why the second section (three parts to a section except when we reach the last stand alone part) of Life After is called "Long November" the sound of the phrase is in my mind, waiting to be called on for this or that use.

This year was supposed to be the one when things turned around.  Without tuition money wasn't supposed to be a problem.  Then, just before what should have been my first school-free semester, absolute Hell descended upon my sister's family.  Stress is high, hope is hard.  Risks are huge.

But, maybe . . .  Maybe this coming year will be better than the last.

Hope is hard.  It's difficult to find, it's easy to batter, but it's also hardy.  When the flames of hope are extinguished, one is not plunged into darkness because the embers persist.

So, maybe, when I think of 2017 there can be hope that that year will be better than this one.