I hope

I hope you love and are loved.

And if you aren’t loved I hope you can forget soon and forgetting you won’t  feel grief.

I hope it isn’t like that but if it is I hope you accept it without being  desperate.

I also hope you have friends that although can be mean and inconsequent are  courageous and faithful and I hope you can truly trust at least one of them.

And because that’s how life is , I hope you have enemies.

Not many , not few , but the right amount so that sometimes you can question  your own certainties. And among your enemies I hope there is at least one  that is really fair so that you don’t feel so sure of yourself.

I hope you are useful but not irreplaceable.

And at tough times ,when there is nothing else to do , I hope you can keep  yourself standing with your own abilities.

I hope you are tolerant - not only with the ones who make mistakes sometimes, because that’s easy , but with the ones who make mistakes all the time.

Making good use of your tolerance can make you an example to others.

I hope you remain young.

I hope you don’t get mature too fast and when you do I hope you don’t insist  on trying to be young again.

And when old I hope you don’t get desperate because each phase of our lives  has its own happiness and sadness and it’s necessary to pass through them.

By the way , I hope you do get sad , not all year long but at least one day of the year.

Because I hope that on that day you can discover the pleasure of a true smile. 

I hope you discover that an everyday smile is good , a habitual smile has no meaning and a constant smile is insane.

I hope that you fondle a cat , feed a bird and listen to the ovenbird sing in the morning and then you’ll feel good for no specific reason.

I hope you plant a seed , even a small one , and follow its growth so that  you can know that a tree’s life is made up of so many other lives.

I hope that you have money because it’s necessary to be practical.

And I hope that at least once a year you put some money in front of you and  say "you are mine" just to make clear who owns who.

I hope that none of your affections die but if it does I hope you can cry  without lamenting and I hope you can suffer without feeling guilty.

And at last ( but not least) I hope that if you are a man you have a good  wife and if you are a woman you have a good husband. 

I hope you love each  other today , tomorrow and the day after that. And when you are exhausted I  hope there is enough love to start over again And if all of this happens , there is nothing else I could hope for.

Victor Hugo