I’m interested in your final sentence: “Maybe I don’t need hope all the time; I just need frequent breaks.” It causes me to ask: What’s the goal of the hope and/or the emotional timeout? (To live to see a certain change in the world, to help bring it about, to be able to appreciate the goodness that is already in front of you, to stop feeling hurt by those who want to hurt you, or…?) Are the goals of Hope & Timeout the same or different? Just something to think about…maybe for another story?