The day begins with gray clouds hanging thick and low as a cold wind blows through the nearly bare trees. Yellow and red leaves scatter across the ground as spatters of rain taper off. It’s a fall morning, signifying the dying of all that once thrived.

The weather mirrors my heart: heavy and coolly unsettled. It was a long night of tossing and turning with intermittent prayers. Despair, even when not my own, is weighty. Maybe it’s weightier than if it were my own…because all I can do is listen, watch and pray when the dying of a heart seems imminent.

Off in the distance, a sliver of blue hints at a coming break in the clouds.

I pray again because it gives me a sliver of hope…the only hope: hope that God sees and knows and is working; hope that after the dying is resurrection; hope that despair has to come to an end.

Today, I’m thankful for hope that eases burdened hearts.