Watching for Signs

"It's a sign." was a common phrase during my childhood years. My mother was always looking for signs of God's presence, and she continues to say that phrase every time she thinks she is receiving a message from up above. As an adult I have joked about this many a time with my siblings and friends. But lately, I find myself being more open to receiving "signs," not only of God's presence, but signs of whether or not I am on the right path. Call it what you will--synchronicity, serendipity, or a sign, sometimes we do sense that the universe or God is trying to tell us something.
During a spur-of-the-moment road trip this past week, I encountered a billboard that resonated with me.

"Hope. No Matter What"

It seems that ever since I decided to call my next collection of note cards the Hope Collection, the word "hope" keeps popping up. I don't think it's a coincidence. It's such a positive word--a promise for the future.
So maybe I'm turning into my mother a little bit, but I think I'll continue looking for signs--signs of hope, no matter what.

New Hope

Like many others, this past year has been filled with many challenges for me. I am looking forward to a little more joy in 2010. To end the year on a positive note, I went on a six-day driving excursion-- the Hope Angel Tour--with my friend Cat and her daughter Savannah. We were in search of angels to photograph and.....well.... in search of hope.
Hope can be elusive. We all want it. Maybe we all even need it. But there are times in our lives when it just doesn't seem to be evident. So the three of us literally drove to the tiny town of New Hope, Texas. Perhaps the search for New Hope would allow me to replace old hopes of the past--hopes that had changed and altered the path that I was on.
New Hope, Texas is so small that it isn't even on the map we were using. But we found it. And we found the cemetery in New Hope that held one tiny angel. It, too, was so small that I missed it during my first walk through the cemetery. Sometimes that's how hope is too. We can miss it, even when it is right there. As I knelt down to photograph the angel you see above, I felt its message of hope, even with the cloudy, cold weather and the rain that started to fall. Did I find hope? Or did it find me? I guess it doesn't really matter. Hope is always there if we are willing to see it.