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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Ennette C Lainchbury

Good Morning Everyone,

Anyone who’s ever met me will tell you I’m an infectiously bubbly person. And I find this so ironic because in reality I'm actually pretty melancholic. Cut to like 13-year-old me listening to Avril Lavigne and Green Day writing emo poetry. You know, very few people in my life know just how deeply I struggle sometimes with an overwhelming despondency or negativity.

Earlier this year and one of my sadder seasons, I took myself out for a coffee and as I gazed outside the window, there was a tree barely in bloom. This was a while ago now but if you squinted against the sunlight, you could see tiny shoots of life beginning to poke through. Immediately, I was gripped by this thought: if the world was truly doomed and without hope, this tree would not blossom.

No matter how harsh or dark or desolate the winter has been, every spring the buds push through the soil reaching towards the light. Every year, the seasons roll around. Every year, beautiful peach and pale pink buds blossom – their tiny shoots are these little beacons of hope and a promise of goodness. Goodness still in existence, and it’s so worth seeking it out and rejoicing in it. Unlike maybe the excessive positivity slogans all over my social media, the slow enduring wisdom of the turning seasons is one of my way-markers for hope.

Very present God, grant me grace to lament the truth of my pain held in the knowledge that it will not devour me. Remind me, oh God, that you are there in my waiting; present, tender, and kind. However melancholic or joyful I feel, remind me that you are with me. Like the little spring buds, help me to push through and see past the darkness to the sunshine all around.

Amen