Hope

"With them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect." --Jane Austen

Hopefully.

That word has become far too common in my everyday vocabulary.

"Hopefully I'll make it to dance this week."
"Hopefully I'll get ahead on homework today."
"Hopefully I'll see you soon."
"Hopefully law school won't totally kill me." ;)

Thinking about it literally, it means 'full of hope,' doesn't it? So why is it that whenever I say it, I'm anything but?

When I say "Hopefully I'll see you soon" it's because I haven't seen you in a while, and don't know the next time I will. If I know the next time I'll see you I leave off the hopefully. I don't have to hope, I know. Same with when I say "Hopefully I'll make it to dance." It's because I don't think there's much chance that I'll be able to, and if I thought I would be able to I'd say "See you at dance" instead!

I'm not losing all hope, but I'm also not filled with it. Essentially, I'm wishing.

In Portuguese, the word for "Hope" is the same word for "Expect." When someone is pregnant, while here we'd say, 'When are you expecting?' they say instead, 'When are you hoping?'

Because for them, to hope is to expect.

I wonder if my life would be any different if, instead of thinking of "I hope" as "I wish," I thought of it as "I expect." I expect to see you soon. I expect to make it to dance. I expect to get ahead on homework. I expect to not die from school. (Well, hey, the last one is true!)

It's definitely something to think about.

Decent Exposure

We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.
Jane Austen

No indeed.
I look at all the lovely blogs in my reading pane, and I feel so incredibly blessed to know so many beautiful young men and women who are striving to spread God's word, and who are indeed, in their own small ways, prime examples of our 'best morality.' One such blog is the awesome Modestia.

While browsing Modestia today, I saw Rebecca's post on Decent Exposure. For those of you interested in modesty, and the fight that awesome and Godly women everywhere are waging against our culture's current standards of dress, I think this will be of interest.

What is Decent Exposure?
Decent Exposure is a ministry for teen girls that was founded last year by Catholic actress, designer, and speaker Jessica Rey. Jes asked me as well as some other modest-minded friends of hers to help her get this ministry off the ground last fall. We had our first program in the summer of 2009 that consisted of 4 weeks of classes about womanhood, modesty, chastity, etc. To surmise all the girls had learned, we topped the program off with an amazing fashion show hosted by actor Skylar Testa with a bonus performance from Caitlin Crosby. (Whom we love here at Modestia!) The program was more amazing than I could have ever imagined and I am so excited for this year. (From Modestia. Here is the post in full. It has some awesome information about their ministry!)

Here's Decent Exposure's website with more information:
http://www.decentexposureonline.com/

And just for the fun of it...

Here are some other awesome websites dedicated to modesty:

Pure Fashion.

Lady Rose's Modesty-Mall.

She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners. ~~ Louisa May Alcott