Dum Vita Est Spes Est--While life is, hope is.

We are taught, from myth and folk tales that something magic can happen when things come in threes. Blind mice, musketeers and coins in a fountain all garner mystery from their 'three on a match' cache. There are three things, in this world, we can not avoid- we are born, we live and we die. Being born and dying are mostly up to fate but the living part, the part in the middle, is where all the fun happens. I have been thinking about threes -- mostly about Faith, Hope and Love. I figure that my mothers faith in the future of mankind got me born and that my living in love will make it easier for me to die back into it. But in the meantime, I am living in the middle, in the 'hope' part. That is the part where, among other things, I get to eat cupcakes. Cupcakes give me hope.

There are many ways to give hope to the world. Hugs, kind words, a helping hands and willing feet are available to all of us to share our hope with others. However hope does not sit easily or is assimilated well on an empty stomach. That's where the cup cakes come in. Almost anyone can afford to make and share cupcakes. They are friendly food --Certainly friendlier than cakes. They do no loom at you with slab-like or round tiered belligerence begging to be cut. When a freshly baked cupcake sits nestled in your hand with a sweet warm heaviness like an eatable chocolate kitten it is impossible not to feel that the world is a good place -- a place that just might nourish you, both body and soul.

I was at the store the other day and noticed that cake mix was on sale. Ten for a dollar. So I bought 13 boxes. I figured, with 20 bucks, (mix, frosting and eggs,) and some time I figure I can make 156 pieces of hope. That is not a lifetime supply but it will make some hungry people at the Saint James Cathedral kitchen very, very happy. When you are on the street, and do not know where you will sleep or eat next, a homemade cupcake can look a lot like love- and the love can give you hope and that hope fulfilled can give you faith -- faith in a higher power that urges some folks, among other things, to make cupcakes.

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