Longing was the first wound: it broke the seal of the heart and taught it to ache for the Beloved. 

Reliance came when every branch beneath it gave way,
teaching the trembling soul to lean upon the One who never breaks.

Redemption entered the ruins, gathered what grief had scattered, and taught the dust to breathe again.

But the soul’s journey does not end with its first rising.

What holds us when the night returns? When the prayer appears unanswered, the door remains closed,
and dawn offers no proof of its coming?

Held by Hope begins in that sacred interval – between the cry and the reply, the seed and the spring, the darkness of the well and the unseen rope of mercy descending towards it.