Hope does not always feel brave

Hope does not always feel brave.

Sometimes hope feels exhausted and ragged.

Threadbare,

like a quilt worn thin at the edges,

patched and re-patched,

but pulled close at the night.

Hope knows the shape of cold rooms

and long waits.

Hope has been handed down,

stitched together by those

who knew how to be faithful

when there seemed not much else to do.

We will not mend all that is broken

in the world today.

But let us breathe deep,

gather our thread,

and stitch ever widening love

into the fabric of our lives.