Healing After Loss

MARCH 5

Faith

is the bird

that feels the light

And sings

when the dawn

is still dark.

—RABINDRANATH TAGORE

In this season of early spring, midway between winter and
summer solstices, sometimes, waking in the morning, we
can almost feel the first touches of summer coming. Often
it is still cold and dark. But something in the air confirms
what the calendar is telling us—that the days, at least in our
Northern Hemisphere, are lengthening. The light will come
sooner and last longer.
Once, in a time of mourning, I was awake all night long.
We had overnight visitors. We had stayed up late talking.
It was after midnight when we went to bed, and then I didn’t
sleep. I was feeling restless, anxious. And then, in the early
morning darkness, the birds began to sing.
Already? I thought.

May we, in our season of darkness and sorrow, hear—and some-
times as a surprise—a song heralding a brighter time.