Month: February 2025

I opened the windows today.  It doesn’t sound like such a big deal.  It really doesn’t take that much effort.  But the winter seems to have drug on longer than usual.  The darkness and the cold have blanketed so much of our lives recently.  It is hard to keep going when life feels so heavy.  And it has felt overwhelmingly heavy. There is hope, still.  There really is hope, even when it feels buried and destroyed.  Even when it can’t be felt, it is there.  It might be faint but it doesn’t completely get drown out by the news or the events or circumstances.  It cannot be completely crushed, though I’m sure it has been blown into a million pieces at times.  

So today, I opened the windows.  It was finally warm enough to do so.  The birds are singing just as they have been taught.  They are proclaiming the goodness of creation regardless of the circumstances.  And so should we.  Except that’s hard sometimes.  I open the windows because being shut up too long begins to feel drab and harmful.  It begins to eat away at me, one nibble at a time.  It becomes a stale and defeating feeling.  But with the windows open, fresh air begins to creep in and hope seems a little more vivid than before.  

It may not last long and that’s okay.  It may only be for a moment, and that may be all that is needed.  Hope only needs to show up in a glimpse to reignite the spark – it keeps the flames of life going.  Life is hard.  Days can feel begrudgingly brutal.  All can feel dark.  So, maybe we just open the windows a little.  Just crack them a bit.  Maybe a little hope might seep in and console our hearts.  Maybe our spirits get renewed.  Maybe, just maybe, we begin to live again.