This week I learned a very important life lesson, hope.It is defined by the dictionary as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” We go through life thinking that we’re a certain way until life tests us. In this case life tested me. It was a lovely sunny, warm Monday morning. I was in a happy and grateful mood having just spent a memorable weekend filled with friends and family. I was walking my mini shnauzer Elvis as I do every morning when he suddenly he cried and began to drag his back legs. I checked to see if he stepped on something but I couldn’t find anything. He hobbled back home and he was not getting better. The vet diagnosed it as a slipped disk and said that it may or may not get better and sent him home with two anti-inflammatories. I was broken and and hopeless. The story does not end there. There were a lot of details in between but the important part of the story is not to give up.My daughter based on advice from her friends took him to a hospital in the Pennsylvania. There they gave us hope and from that minute on I knew he was going to be fine. I needed someone not to give up when I subconsciously did. My daughter did not give up and today Elvis is at home, walking around, recovering from surgery with more years in his happy doggy life. The decision by my daughter not to wait, but to act based on hope changed the trajectory of Elvis’s life. Hope is more powerful than we know!!!