Draw closer to the deep meanings of hope — hope is a movement within the human person that sees the present and all its prospects, or lack thereof, in light of some other prospect, something good, or even slightly better, that is to come. It recognizes that what is presently possible might not be all there is. Hope holds out and holds on. It looks in expectation toward some other — a person, a thing, an event, a time or a state — in the realization that, if and when it does come, it comes only as a gift.

This kind of hope is rooted in the conviction that there is still more to be said and that there might yet be some good news. Hope waits and it longs for more. It looks to the next moment and the next. Hope always moves through and beyond the present moment. It is not restlessness, but anticipation.

Too often we are inclined to think of hope as an emergency virtue. When things are really bad or when we have nothing else, there is always hope. Hope is something that we tend to save up for a crisis. Indeed, it is true that hope is what we have, precisely when we do not have something else. And hope may spring forth at the very moment when we are really at the end of our rope. It is precisely in those times when we are really "on the edge," when we are most prone to despair, that we can lean into hope and rise, moving past darkness and despair in and through hoping.

Michael Downey, Hope Begins Where Hope Begins