Читать книгу The Woman's Book of Hope - Eileen Campbell - Страница 7

Let's imagine we've allowed the possibility of hope to surface. Perhaps the future can look different. Maybe all is not lost.

There's a story about a famous painting called The Chess Players (sometimes also called Checkmate and The Game of Life) by Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch. Probably painted in 1831, it used to hang in a public gallery but is now in private hands. The painting depicts two people playing chess, one of whom is Satan, the other a young man, possibly Faust, since Retzsch illustrated Goethe's Faust.

The chessboard appears to be placed on the lid of a sarcophagus, and a skull reminds us that death is never far away. Hope is also present in the form of a guardian angel, who watches over the young man. He looks forlorn, as if he knows the game is over and his soul is lost. Checkmate!

The story goes that a chess Grandmaster on a visit to the gallery spent a long time studying the positions of the chess pieces. Suddenly he cried out, “It's a lie. The painter is wrong. There is a way out. The king has another move.” The young man actually has the chance to defeat his deadly opponent. All is not lost!

However desperate a situation and however troubled we may feel, there is always hope. Just as stars in the sky are at their brightest when it's truly dark, so we can find hope in the darkness of despair. Whatever our pain and suffering, all is not lost. We have a choice; we can save ourselves: we can select hope and turn the situation around.

I remind myself that there is always hope, however dark things may seem.

I am choosing hope and turning the situation around.

I know that I possess the resources to deal with my problem.