WHERE IS HOPE?
I didn’t like my mood. It wasn’t exactly cold—more like chilly with a chance of thunderstorms. Exactly like the weather that day. I knew why I was feeling that way, and it scared me. Changes were in the air, looming over me like ominous clouds. I also knew that there was hope for my situation, like I knew the sun was somewhere up there, but not being able to connect with it was unsettling.
The smell of impending rain enveloped me. I sat by a haystack at the top of a small hill, an apple orchard to my right, bushes downhill, and a little flock of sheep grazing in the clearing to my left. High above, a few needlelike rays of sunshine pierced the pewter clouds. The mountains in the distance were a palette of muted colors in the gathering gloom—greens, grays, blues, purples. Between them and me, a light rain hung like a filmy curtain. I had to admit that even without the sun and the usual bright colors, the view was beautiful.
Exactly like today, I thought. Like this week, like the last months. So much uncertainty, like these clouds hanging over me. So many challenges, like these mountains before me. But there is still beauty to be found, even in these trying circumstances.
Just then the clouds passed, the sun came out, and it suddenly became warmer. A tiny lilac butterfly alighted on my shoe, and a woodpecker tapped out his message in Morse code—“God is love.”1 Hope had shown her face, and she was beautiful!
Mila Nataliya A. Govorukha is a youth counselor and volunteer in Ukraine. ■