Lighting a Candle

I did not make you to hold everything.
This world will break your heart,
and every day, somewhere,
it is ending.
But do listen deeply,
do seek peace and pursue it,
love as much as you can.

Do light the candle of mercy every night,
though the wind outside is strong
and you know not when it will cease.

From Prayer for a Blue Day by Dee Dee Risher

This world will break your heart, day after day, moment after moment. It will break your heart through great beauty or great sorrow. The news will break your heart. Stories of suffering will break your heart. Stories of illness and loss will break your heart. And still we listen, still, we love as much as we can, still, we work for peace.

We can do it because we have each other, because we don’t do it alone, because we are held in God’s grace and peace. We do it because we find strength in our community and our common purpose.

So, every night we light a candle of mercy to calm our spirits if we can’t calm the wind. Every night we light a candle to give us strength for tomorrow.

In God’s grace ~

Cynthia