“We want to create hope for the person … we must give hope, always hope.” – St. Teresa of Calcutta

For many people, the dark, cloudy, cold days limit inspiration. Some authors and artists find creativity in the depressive days of certain seasons; one could argue that reduced light creates a creative contrast between shadows and light, and cumulous cloud formations invite a comparison to living creatures. Some of the most famous artists battled depression and other forms of mental illness, thereby living in a kind of darkness even on a sunny day.
Conversely, if the lack of daily vitamin D truly inhibits your creativity, you may wonder how you can survive the winter. There is no denying that in American modern culture, the sunny side of life is regaled, worshipped and sought after. There’s a reason why retirement homes most often lie beneath the Mason-Dixon line. The Floridian city, Winterhaven, comes to mind.
Amongst the clouds, snow or seemingly never-ending overcast day, lies this tricky state of mind called hope. Dictionary.com’s definition is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” Hope can be like that cloud formation – it builds, it radiates and then it dissipates. You may hope every day for sun or warmth. You may hope that spring and summer come quicker. Any hope or wish, varies and changes with each person, just like the view and interpretation of a cloud formation.
Your degree of hope depends on different situations, life experiences and your environment. Deciphering the amount of hope in each person is like predicting how much water it will take to form a cloud. The amount of water vapor required to create a cloud varies in each one. Those tiny droplets of water float and create one of 10 basic cloud types. Remember the Sandra Bullock/Harry Connick, Jr. movie, “Hope Floats?”
There is another definition of the word “cloud,” the noun meaning a state of gloom or worry. The verb “cloud” means to make or become less clear or transparent. Having something “cloud your judgment” is a common phrase.
As the dark clouds of saddening thoughts come to mind, hope can fade. When we see that in someone, what can we do? St. Teresa of Calcutta, best known for her work with the indigent in India, inspired others to create or give hope. In 1948, she brought her religious training, six months of basic medical training and the hope of a lifetime into the slums of Calcutta with “no more specific a goal than to aid “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.”*
If we inspire others to hope, we also receive the grace of hope. Every opportunity to be light to others deepens our connection to them. That connection sustains hope in times of darkest clouds and heaviest rains. Even if you don’t see the sun or feel its warmth, hope provides the inspiration to weather any storm.

*biography.com